The world of Android can be great.

With that said, the Android scene can be a scary place.  For all of its advantages, I see Android software as the Windows of smartphones. You have to be cautious too.  Unless you are getting a Nexus phone from Google, which will get three years of updates from new (to market, not new to you), your Android phone is a two year phone.  This means, two years from when it hit the market.  This is a hypothetical, but the Samsung Galaxy S5 was released in the Spring of 2014.  If smartphone user John Smith, bought that Galaxy S5 in Spring of 2015, he should be looking for a new phone right now.    As I said in my “State of Android” address a few weeks ago, it is important to check with your carrier or manufacturer as to when updates were released for the phone.  You can often find this information by Googling.   An example Google search string might be  — Galaxy S5 ATT 2016 updates.    If your phone is two years old, and you are still getting regular security updates, you may think of it as buying yourself a few more months to choose the best replacement.

So — with their being a potential for security issues –You I have to recommend anti-virus apps.   The good thing is, with both of these apps THE FREE OPTION is fine.  You can pay more if you want the advanced features, but I would like to see you get on board with the free version of one of these today.  The two anti-virus (anti malware, anti-rootkit) apps I will recommend are

– Lookout Security & Anti-Virus

– Kaspersky Internet Security

Both of the free implementations of these apps work a little differently so let me tell you how they work.

– With Lookout, you need to register for an account with them.  This means making a user name and password.  You do this within the app.  With Lookout you will get active scanning.  This means, when you download new apps, Lookout will scan them.   Lookout will also do periodic scans of your phone.  

– Kaspersky seems like the easiest to get up and going with NOW.  When it asks if you want to create an account,  press SKIP.  Then press USE FREE VERSION.  Kaspersky will then prompt you to start an initial scan of your phone.    However, in the future you will need to manually scan your phone from time to time.  Kaspersky will prompt you.  Go ahead and do it, perhaps weekly.   The paid version of Kaspersky will do the automatic scanning.

For me personally, I am using Kaspersky.  I may have set up some of you with Lookout in the past.  Keep using it.  You don’t need both.  If you have no Android security, please download one of these two apps immediately from the Play Store.    You can get up and running with Kaspersky in about 3 minutes.   Lookout will take you a few minutes longer due to the need to create an account.