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How To Find Hidden Spyware on your Android Device (Latest Guide)

A smartphone has become an integral part of our daily routine. A working professional cannot imagine a life without a smartphone. Almost everything ranging from emails, developing presentations, writing a document to even keeping track of your expenditure can be done on a smartphone. In fact, with a plenitude of hardware and software features, Android has achieved the level of advancement where even computers are not required to get major things done since most of the things a Windows PC can do are doable on Android. However, as the mobile system developed, so did the Android spyware, viruses, and other cyber threats.

spyware-present-android-phone

How to Detect Spyware on Android Smartphone

Check How To Turn Off Safe Mode on Tumblr from Android [Complete Tutorial].

If we go by the facts, privacy on Android smartphones is one of the biggest issues, the mobile devices are reeling with. At one point, even you might have pondered upon as to whether anybody is tracking your phone and spying on your activities. Well! We are here to help you with that. In this post, you are going to learn about different ways to detect and find hidden spyware on your Android device. Continue reading ahead to know more.

[How-To] Detect/Find Hidden Spyware Apps on Android

On one hand, the current level of advancement and progress is good for Android users, but the same advancement and progress have given rise to a plenitude of spying applications, that people can easily install on smartphones enabling them to keep a track of every activity performed on the device. In the following sections of this post, you will learn about several tips and tricks that can aid and assist you in identifying whether your phone is being tracked or spied on.

1. Uncommon and Odd Smartphone Behavior

It is not very difficult to identify when your smartphone is behaving in an uncommon and an odd way. You will experience several different situations which can, definitely, indicate that your smartphone is running spyware. These situations can be any one of the following:

  • Weird notification sounds coming out.
  • The device automatically gets shut down.
  • The occasional reboot of your device.
  •  Unidentified apps showing up on your smartphone.

Please note that if you are using a rooted Android smartphone, you are most likely to face these unpleasant situations.

2. Abnormality in the battery usage pattern

It is safe to say that a user, after a few days of using the smartphone, becomes aware of the battery usage pattern. Hence, the user can easily identify any kind of abnormalities in the same.

battery drainage issue

If all of a sudden, the battery life of your smartphone reduces, it could be attributed to spyware or a tracking software running in the background without your knowledge.

3. Uncalled-for High Data Usage

It is quite obvious that spyware applications will use a plenitude of your mobile data to send information from your smartphone. Hence, if you happen to notice an abrupt increase in the data usage of your smartphone, you can attribute the same to spyware or tracking software installed on your smartphone. However, if you are spending more time online, then things cannot be attributed to spyware. Hence, take into account all the factors before coming to a conclusion.

4. Uninstall Pirated Applications from your Smartphone

We all download third-party applications on our Android smartphone especially the video-on-demand applications or streaming applications for watching the latest movies and TV Series. We agree that these third-party applications are pretty fantastic. However, a majority of these third-party applications might not be legit and may procure sensitive data from you. Hence, if you start experiencing issues in your smartphone, go ahead, delete all the third-party applications, and reboot your smartphone. See if the performance of your smartphone rectifies after this or not.

Do check how to Install Google Chrome Extensions on Android Browser [Tutorial].

5. Unwanted Pop-Ups

It happens when you are browsing on your smartphone, you get redirected to a link you never opened. In certain unpleasant cases, you might get a fake warning that a virus has been detected in your smartphone, please install the following antivirus to get rid of the same. It is highly recommended that you should ignore this kind of warnings and never click on anything that looks even a little fishy.

6. Random Reboots and Shut Downs

This is one of the most common activities that spyware or a tracking software indulges in. They will cause your smartphone to reboot or shut down randomly without warning. If this issue of random reboots or shutdowns doesn’t stop even after updating your smartphone, it is most likely caused by spyware or tracking software.

restarting-shutting-off

In certain cases, a third-party application might be behind this. If you believe that a third-party application could be causing these issues, uninstall the application and see if the issue still persists. If the issues still persist, then this can be attributed to the presence of a spyware or tracking software on your Android smartphone.

7. New Files and Folders Cropping Up in your Smartphone

You must be having a File Manager application installed on your Android smartphone. Browse your phone using the File Manager application and see if any suspicious file or folder has been created on your Android device. If you happen to notice files or folders which cannot come up as a part of an installation, it is most likely that spyware or tracking software has been installed on your Android device.

8. Lack in Performance of your Android Smartphone

If your smartphone has suddenly become slow, for no reasons that you might know, then there is a high risk that your phone is being monitored or controlled. Spyware working at the backend, using huge amounts of data can make your smartphone go really slow. However, if you have installed a heavy application or a game, which demands a significant portion of your device’s hardware resources, try uninstalling that application or game before reaching to a conclusion.

Final Words – How To Remove Spyware from Android Devices

These are some of the major symptoms that can aid and assist you in identifying whether your device has been infected by spyware or not. Once you are able to detect that spyware is present on your Android device, make sure you get rid of it as soon as possible. If detected, let us know in the comments section provided below if you require any kind of assistance in removing the spyware from your Android device.

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