Android is the most popular and widely used Operating System for smartphones across the globe. This open-source operating system is easy to use and heavily customizable. Developers and advanced Android users always prefer to tweak and customize Android devices to achieve the look & functionalities that a stock firmware usually lacks. Meanwhile, it’s quite hard to believe that someone can spy on you using your Android device or even directly spying on your phone like calls, activities, etc. Here we’ve shared 10 Ways to Find Hidden Spyware on any Android Device (2021).

It’s quite possible these days as people are getting impatient and the lack of faith or trust with each other or even keeping an eye on kids/partners becomes quite common. It’s hard to believe that someone is spying on you either from your office or any of your friends or family member, etc. There is another major reason to spy on your Android device is that most of your data, personal files/moments, texts, audio/video, other important documents, contacts, account credentials, etc are saved on your phone these days.

Therefore, spying on you or on your handset won’t require any computer or extra hacking skills. As we’ve mentioned either your boss is spying on you to monitor your work timings, dedication, responsibility, and more. On the other side, any suspicious or unhealthy relationship can also lead one partner to spy on another partner. Alternatively, parents can spy on their children or teenagers using the hidden spyware on their Android device in order to track down their location or activity.

Must Read: How to Turn On Safe Mode on Android devices

Privacy is one of the biggest issues of people not only in smartphones but getting online also. “If you’re online, you won’t be private anymore.” Now, let’s head over to the steps to find the spyware on Android if hidden.

List of Some Hidden Spyware Apps for Android

  • Auto Forward: Auto Forward is one of the best Android spy apps that offers advanced monitoring features remotely. Just download and install the app on the Android device and start using it. It’s also worth mentioning that the customer service is very communicative and helpful. (Download Link)
  • Highster Mobile: Highster Mobile is also a well-known spying app for both Android and iOS devices. This app can track activities of an Android device such as calls, texts, location, browsing history, and more. (Download Link)
  • PhoneSpector: PhoneSpector is the latest Android spy app that has advanced features for an extra layer of spying than others. It has a user-friendly interface and can recover deleted messages, etc. (Download Link)

Steps to Find Hidden Spyware on Android

There are plenty of spying apps available for Android which can be easily installed on your phone to monitor your activity, location, conversations, etc.

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In order to get rid of the hidden spyware, you should check out the below-mentioned steps or tips first. These tricks/tips may come in handy for you or your friends/family in most cases. There may be more steps available but these are the most possible and common things you should keep in mind.

1. Unusual Behavior of your Smartphone

One of the easiest ways to detect hidden spyware is to check for the unusual behavior of your smartphone at first. If there is any spyware or tracking software installed on your device, in most cases, your phone will perform differently. It can be easily noticeable if your smartphone causes some error or runs strangely.

  • If your phone lights up automatically, shuts down automatically, or produces some strange sounds, there is an issue.
  • Find apps completely on your phone which you have installed from first to last. If you find any strange application which is not for your use, uninstall it right now.
  • Mostly, rooted smartphones have that system customization or admin access to all the apps and services which are running in the background. That may also cause issues. If you can suspect it, you should unroot your device and do a clean install of device ROM.

These hacked or patched hidden spyware or apps can cause more issues to your device and device data as well. Let’s take a quick look.

2. Unexpected Battery Draining

This one is another useful way to find out whether someone is spying on your phone or not. In this case, you may experience a huge battery draining and heating issue without too much usage. After using a phone for a couple of weeks, most people become quite experienced with battery draining patterns or charging patterns. So, that will really come in handy if your phone is suddenly experiencing a low battery issue without any heavy usage.

Spyware and tracking apps can drain your device battery completely because it runs every time in the background and collects data as well. In some cases, it may be your older battery issue. or this type of issue, you can replace your smartphone’s battery with a new one and check whether it’s draining like before or not.

3. Unusual Noise during Phone Calls

If you’re experiencing any unusual noise or sounds during phone calls, it may be an issue of line cross-connection or spyware. Meanwhile, if you hear beep sounds quite often during phone calls, then maybe your calls are being recorded. You can check for that as well.

Additionally, if the call quality has suddenly dropped or is low, it can also mean that your phone calls are being recorded. However, it might also be possible that your network connectivity has some issues or signal quality is not up to the mark.

4. Occasional Restarts and Shut Downs

Spyware and tracking apps can cause occasional restarts and shutdowns on your Android devices. But, if you know that your device software is stable and recently updated, then your phone has spyware software installed.

Any unstable or third-party apps can also cause reboots to the system. You can reset your device after backing up all device data for once to check whether the issue is solved or not.

5. Search Spam SMS/Emails

Some spyware apps can send spam text messages or emails on phones with different codes or symbols or even bad links. If you’re receiving such SMS on your Android smartphone then there is a chance that your phone is hacked.

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For this issue, you can search for that spam SMS/email from the inbox/spam list and delete it completely. You can also use the Truecaller app for detecting spam or bad contacts, calls, or SMS in real-time. But for this, you need an internet connection enabled on your phone.

Read More: Steps to run Fuchsia in Android Studio

6. High Data Usage

Spyware apps can use a lot of mobile data to send your device activity information. That will cause high data usage or leak on a daily basis. You need to check that within a few days on a daily basis. Then you can understand.

You can also monitor all of your apps including system apps that may consume the internet and stop/disable them if required.

7. Phone Sounds during Lazy Time

That means when you have your work or study or traveling time, your phone gets so much spare time to take a rest and keep cool. But your phone may produce some unusual sounds or noise while even you don’t use it. You can stop it via the factory reset of your device first.

8. Lags in Device Performance

Sometimes your device system data may get corrupted or froze during the background use of any spyware. In that case, your device or system apps may be stopped working. Your device will occasionally restart or shut down quite often. The page or file open will get slightly delayed than expected. Your device may become slightly unresponsive during phone startup, internet browsing, etc.

9. Occasional PopUps

Most Android smartphone users may experience a common issue like advertisements or popup notifications on your screen occasionally. It may become unresponsive again but you can close the popups from your browser settings.

Somehow these settings won’t work most of the time and popups will appear again and again. However, rooted smartphones can use adblocker apps which can be useful than non-rooted devices.

10. Check Suspicious/Spam Files

If your device works suspiciously, you can check out the device folders or files from the File Manager app completely. You can also install any third-party fully-featured File Manager App so that you can check the root folder and system folder thoroughly to check any spam files.

Summary:

Whether you’re an advanced user or a normal user, hackers can find hacking or patch easily with so many new ways. You need to require to bypass those unnecessary third-party apps or file manager apps that may cause a data leak. Most of the games or social media applications also leak user data which is similar to hacking or spying. Be safe and smart while you’re online.

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