Today, smartphones and tablets are essentially personal computers on the go; and just like personal computers, they are also prone to viruses and malware. With millions of people storing sensitive information on mobile devices and using them to surf the web, read emails and carry out financial transactions, it is not surprising that cyber criminals are targeting these devices.

Malware finds its way onto mobile devices through the same attack vectors by which it infiltrates computers: opening an email attachment, clicking on a web link, or downloading a file or an app. Mobile devices can also be maliciously used by cyber criminals to launch a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack on cellular networks, just like personal computers are used to "crash" a targeted website by overloading it with illegitimate traffic.

To protect your device against these increasing threats, it is highly recommended to use anti-virus software.

AVG AntiVirus for Android is a security app for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The app's core purpose is to protect your mobile device from security threats and malware which are becoming more and more popular in the mobile domain.

AVG AntiVirus for Android goes far beyond protecting your device. With features such as App Locker, Task Killer, Tuneup and its Anti-theft service, AVG AntiVirus also helps you maintain your privacy, monitor performance, and remotely manage your device if it is lost or stolen.

AVG offers you two versions of AVG AntiVirus for Android: FREE and PRO. The FREE version offers our malware protection as well as several value-added tools. The PRO version is a full version that includes all the app's advanced features.

The following table summarizes the differences between the two versions:

In order to install and run AVG AntiVirus for phones, you need a mobile device with a touch screen running Android 2.1 or higher.

Android tablets: In order to install and run AVG AntiVirus for tablets, you need a tablet device with a touch screen running Android 3.2 or higher.

Some of the product features have specific system requirements regarding the Android version on the device.

The following table lists the Android operating system requirement for each of these features:

You can download AVG AntiVirus for Android from the Google Play (recommended), from the AVG website (www.avg.com) or from other leading app stores.

Download from Google Play:

1. Launch the Google Play app on your mobile device.
2. On Google Play, search for AVG.
3. On the search results screen, click on the AVG AntiVirus for Android product you want to download.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the download process.

After you download AVG AntiVirus for Android, the product is automatically installed on your mobile device. To start using the app, click on Applications, click on the AVG AntiVirus icon and follow the instructions on the screen.

Yes, AVG AntiVirus works on Android tablets and protects them from security threats.

However, for tablets that do not support telephone services, some of the threats related to smartphones are irrelevant. Therefore, for these tablets the following features are not applicable:

• Scan Text Messages

The main goal of AVG AntiVirus for Android is to protect your mobile device against security threats. A security threat is not necessarily just a virus or malware, that is, a malicious code running on your device. It can also be related to social engineering, that is, manipulative actions taken by cyber criminals in order to mislead you and gain access to your personal data. For example, you might receive a text message from your bank asking you to visit a specific link to change your password. By visiting this link and typing your current password, you may give cyber criminals access to your bank account.

To protect your device against security threats, including malicious code and social engineering attacks, AVG AntiVirus for Android must closely monitor many activities and data sources on your device. To achieve this, AVG AntiVirus for Android requires several types of permissions, including ones that do not seem related to security at first glance.

In addition, other permissions are required by AVG AntiVirus for Android to provide value-added functionalities. For example, the Tuneup tool requires certain permissions to help monitor your device performance parameters.

The main goal of AVG AntiVirus for Android is to protect your device at all times when the operating system is running. Therefore, by design, AVG AntiVirus runs as a service on the Android operating system. Installing the app on the SD card will prevent it from providing your mobile device with protection when there is no access to the SD card (for example, when the device is connected to your PC or when the SD card is physically removed from the device).

AVG AntiVirus for Android offers two easy ways for you to manually scan your device:

1. On the main screen, simply tap the “Scan now” button to run a manual scan.
   -OR-
2. On the main screen, tap on “Protection” and then tap on “Scan now” to run a manual scan.

You can also run an automatic scan of your device in a pre-defined frequency. For more information, please see the Auto-Scan Frequency section below.

AVG AntiVirus for Android scans the following components on your device:

• Installed Apps
• Android OS Settings
• Content and Media files

When AVG AntiVirus for Android security engine identifies a potentially malicious app on your device, the scan results screen will present the app name and will allow you to uninstall it.

Unlike malicious programs and viruses found on personal computers, where the user can try and "clean" the infected program or file, the only option in the mobile devices domain is to uninstall a malicious app.

AVG AntiVirus for Android security engine searches the general settings area on your device for potential risks. The following table lists the potential threats and the recommended resolution.

AVG AntiVirus for Android security engine searches for potential risks in the following content types:

1. Files - if suspicious files are found, you will be advised to delete them.
2. Text messages (SMS) - If any suspicious messages are found, you will be advised to open the Message Blocker feature.
   Message Blocker will display only suspicious text messages and will allow you to decide what to do with these messages.
3. Media Files - If such files are found, you will be advised to delete them.

When a threat is found during the AVG AntiVirus for Android scan, the results screen includes the appropriate recommendations for handling the threat. However, the screen also offers the user the ability to ignore the threat in future scans. By selecting the Ignore checkbox, the user can indicate that he does not want to be notified again on the specific threat found.

AVG Security Center is where our security research team constantly publishes the latest findings in the arena of mobile security as well as a professional analysis of potential risks. To learn more, please visit http://www.avgmobilation.com/securitycenter.

You can also visit the AVG Official Blogs page on http://viruslab.blog.avg.com.

Update Now lets you perform a manual update of the AVG AntiVirus for Android security signatures. If there are no updates available, you will be notified that the latest updates are installed.

AVG AntiVirus for Android will download automatically the latest security signature DB every 24-48 hours.

Scan now lets you start a manual scan of the device.

Auto-Scan Frequency allows you to set the desired frequency for an automatic scan of your mobile device. The available frequencies are:

• Once a day
• Once a week
• Never

The scan will run automatically according to your predefined frequency. After the scan is completed, a notification will appear in the notification area. Clicking the notification will open the scan results screen.

File Scanner lets you run a security file scan targeting specific storage locations on your mobile device. Scan targets can be your SD card, root, downloads, pictures, music or video. After selecting the scan target, you can go on to select specific folders, sub-folders or files for scanning. The scan results are displayed once the scan is completed.

Yes, before installing new applications on your device, AVG AntiVirus for Android will prompt you to run a scan of the application package file (APK).

Safe Web Surfing uses the AVG LinkScanner™ engine to protect the user from malicious web links by automatically checking them while the user is surfing the web. AVG LinkScanner checks web pages in real-time and helps you avoid visiting suspicious websites.

Note that Safe Web Surfing is monitoring web usage only when using the default web browser that comes with Android operating system.

By enabling the Deep File Scan option the security engine will perform antivirus scan of the APK files that are stored on the SD card and not installed.

These APKs passes deep scan in which the APK full content is evaluated by the antivirus security engine.

Scan Text Messages allows you to enable or disable the scanning of incoming text messages (SMS) for potentially suspicious messages.

A message is considered suspicious if it contains data that might lead to a phishing attack.

Suspicious messages can be managed from the Call and Message Blocker feature.

Note: Text messages are already scanned during both manual or automatic scans, but Scan Text Messages provides an additional method for real-time scanning of your messages.

To delete a suspicious message, simply use your device's text messaging app and delete the suspicious message as you would any other message.

‘Enable PUP’ is a new optional level of protection that treats potentially unwanted programs (PUP) as malware and allows you to remove them when detected.
This new level of protection scans mainly two types of programs:

1. "Potentially Unwanted Programs"(PUP) sometimes act similarly to viruses or spyware. They are usually installed legitimately as a part of another program, but may result in behavior unwanted by the user, even though the user may have initially agreed to download and install it.
    
2. Adware - Adware software can display and/or download advertisements and may be considered privacy-invasive because of collecting certain types of data, installing bookmarks in your browser, changing the homepage and your default search engine without your knowledge and spamming the device notifications bar. 

Note that this option is enabled by default.

Task Killer lets you "kill" (stop) an app with a single click if your device gets slow or stuck.

Battery Consumption - View the battery time remaining for different activities, turn power saving options On\Off, and set a notification on low battery when power reaches a specific threshold.

Data Usage – View and monitor your mobile data plan (3G, including while roaming) and set a notification when the usage reaches a specified threshold.

Note that for Android Tablets, this feature will be available only if the device has an operative SIM supporting cellular data traffic.

Storage Usage - Allows you to view and manage your storage locations (internal and SD card).

App Locker makes it possible to protect installed apps against misuse by locking them with a personal password. An app protected by App Locker can only be launched after providing this password and thus cannot be misused by unauthorized users. The password can be easily recovered by email.

App Locker is designed to password-protect specific apps only. To protect the mobile device itself from misuse, you can use the Android operating system built-in Screen Unlock security mechanism settings.

App Locker is fully available to AVG AntiVirus PRO users. For AVG AntiVirus FREE users, this feature is available for a trial period of 14 days.

Note that once an app is selected to be protected against misuse, this feature might consume more battery resources.

Yes, App Locker can also lock the device’s general settings with a personal password. To lock the general settings, make sure that the Settings checkbox on the App Locker screen is selected.

App Backup provides an option to backup apps to the SD card. The backed-up apps can be restored to the mobile device at a later time.

App Backup does not backup personal information related to apps such as passwords and settings.

App Backup is fully available to AVG AntiVirus PRO users. For AVG AntiVirus FREE users, this feature is available for a trial period of 14 days.

The different ‘Wipe…’ options lets you delete different types of information stored on your mobile device. The wipe is irreversible – once deleted, the wiped data cannot be recovered.

Wipe Device – this option is equivalent to a factory data reset

Wipe Data by Category – wipe selectively data that is part of the following categories:

1. Accounts
2. Phone information (Contacts, Call log, Text/MMS messages)
3. Browsing information (History, Bookmarks)

Wipe SD card – format the SD card

Call and Message Blocker is a feature that allows you to block unwanted or unknown incoming phone calls and text messages (SMS).

To block incoming calls, simply follow these quick steps:

1. From the app’s “Privacy” menu, tap “Call and Message Blocker.”
2. A list of incoming calls will be presented.
3. Tap on a contact name or phone number.
4. Select your desired option by checking it.
5. Tap “OK.”

Note that this option is enabled by default.

For each phone number, you can select one of the following options: 

1. Switch to silent mode: Your phone will not ring when receiving calls from this number.
2. Block call: All incoming calls from this number will be rejected.
3. Block call and auto-reply with message: All incoming calls from this number will be rejected, and a designated auto-reply text message will be sent to the caller. (Note: Your auto-reply message is limited to 70 characters in length. When selecting “Set as default message,” your auto-reply message will become the default message sent to all phone numbers in this category.)

General notes: 

• Incoming calls are identified by phone numbers.
• All auto-reply messages are sent from your device as text messages (SMS) and may be charged by your mobile operator accordingly.

To block incoming text messages, simply follow these quick steps:

1. From the app’s “Privacy” menu, tap “Call and Message Blocker.”
2. Tap the “Messages” tab.
3. A list of incoming messages will be presented.
4. Tap on a contact name or message.
5. Select your desired option by checking it.
6. Tap “OK.”

For each incoming text message, you can select one of the following options:

1. Add sender to trusted list: Stops warning you about messages from this sender.
2. Add sender to blocked list: All incoming text messages from this sender will be blocked and will not be displayed in your device’s messaging app. (Note: When a message is blocked, this event is recorded and can be viewed in Call and Message Blocker’s “Messages” log.)
3. Mark message as spam: Adds a special header and footer to the body of suspicious text messages. Once a message is marked as spam, it will not be categorized as a suspicious message again. (Note: The message itself is not deleted. To delete a suspicious message, simply use your device's text messaging app and delete the suspicious message as you would any other message.)

Of course! Simply tap the funnel icon and select your preferred view.

1. For incoming calls, select: “All Incoming Calls” (default view) OR “Blocked Calls”
2. For incoming messages, select: “All Incoming Messages” (default view) OR “Suspicious Messages” OR “Blocked Messages”

Sorry, no. To make calls or send text messages, please use your device’s designated apps.

The feature is available only for mobile devices that have both a phone dialer and texting messaging apps installed.

The Call and Message Blocker feature is based on standard implementation of the Android OS telephony application programming interface (API). 
There are a few smartphone device models that have a proprietary API for telephony. On those specific models the Call and Message Blocker feature may not work properly. We are aware that a few LG models are in this category of phones.

The Anti-theft service is designed to help and support AVG AntiVirus for Android users in case their mobile device is lost or stolen. By registering to the FREE Anti-theft service, the user can log into the avgmobilation.com website and remotely control the missing device using the Remote Management web interface. For more information about Remote Management, please see the Remote Management section below.

Your Google account is the same email account with which you registered to Google Play.

On your mobile device, tap on Anti-theft.

For your convenience, your Google account as it is defined on the device will be presented in the dialog box, tap on OK.

After the registration process is completed, the following message will appear:

Click on OK to close the message window.

If you wish to use another Google account, delete the one that is seen in the dialog and enter it manually and tap on OK.

An email message will be automatically sent to the Google account email address used for registration. This email will contain an overview of the Anti-Theft service and the Remote Management web interface and instructions on how to use them.

After the registration process is finished, it is highly recommended to login to the Remote Management web interface to learn how to use its features.

When the user registers the device, this checkbox is selected and the device will automatically send its current location to the Remote Management web interface to help locate it in case it is lost or stolen.

This checkbox is automatically selected when the user successfully registers the Anti-Theft service. The user can always deselect the feature from user’s device.

Use of location services is pursuant to AVG's privacy policy. The device location is only collected when the user logs into the Remote Management web interface and when the user clicks on the Locate option in the web interface. AVG does not keep track of the device location history.

Note that some previous versions of the Android operating system do not support location-based services. In these cases, the following message will be displayed: "Location service is not supported on current OS version".

The registration process may fail because of the following two reasons:

1. The device is not connected to the Internet - please check that the device is connected to the Internet.
2. The device is connected to the Internet, but there is a communication problem between the device and the backend Anti-Theft server.

Should the registration fail due to one of the above reasons, you will receive a popup message indicating the registration failed and that you should try again later.

The Remote Management web interface on the avgmobilation.com website provides AVG AntiVirus for Android users with several options for remote control of their missing device by sending specific commands to the device. The following table lists these options:

On your PC, go to www.avg.com.

Click on Anti-Theft Login and enter the Google account email address and password you used to register for the Anti-Theft service. Then click on Log in.

The Remote Management web interface will be displayed.

Note: the remote management interface uses your Google account credentials.
in order to authenticate your access.

Go to your Google account settings if you wish to change your Anti-Theft login password.

Note: a change to your Google account password will also affect other Google services to which you are registered using this password.

Some of the Remote Management features have specific system requirements regarding the Android version on the device.

The following table lists the Android operating system requirement for each of these features:

There is no limit on the number of mobile devices that can be managed by the same Google account login.

If you have several devices registered to the service with the same Google account, you can choose which device to manage from the "Select device" dropdown list.

This message appears in one of the following scenarios:

• You logged into the Remote Management web interface without first registering to the Anti-theft service using the device. To resolve this issue, please make sure to complete the registration process on the device before you login.
• You logged into the Remote Management web interface with a Google account which is not the one you used to register for the Anti-theft service. To resolve this issue, please login with the Google account credentials you used for the registration process.

Several technologies are used to calculate the device's current location, including GPS, cell tower ID and Wi-Fi network.

When the user registers, the Device Locator is enabled. When the user clicks on the Locate option on the Remote Management web interface, a command is sent to the mobile device. In return, the device sends back its location data based on one or more of the above technologies. This data is processed and the calculated current location of the device is presented on a map. A user may always disable the location service via user's device.

Notes:

• For the location service to work, the Device Locator checkbox on the app has to be selected.
• For the device to send accurate GPS data, sky view is required.
• For the device to send Wi-Fi network data, the following checkbox has to be selected on the device: Settings>Location>Use wireless networks.
• For Android tablets that do not have a GPS module, locating the device will be based on Wi-Fi only. Note that locating by Wi-Fi only may limit the accuracy of the device’s location.

A widget, which is a set of app shortcuts, gives you immediate access to key features of the app directly from your home screen.  It also enables the user to see dynamic updates of the current status of the selected key features related to security, performance and privacy. In addition, it allows you to directly open configuration/feature menus related to a selected shortcut.

To add the widget, tap on the phone menu button or just tap & hold on the home screen > Add widget. From the list of widgets, tap on ‘AntiVirus’ and drag it to a home screen of your choice.

Yes. Click the ‘Settings’ button (which looks like a “cog”) on the top right-hand corner of the widget and the widget settings screen will then open. Select the shortcut you want to replace and tap on it. A list of additional available shortcuts will then open up. Tap on the new shortcut you wish to be part of the widget and click ‘Done’.

The license activation method depends on the way the product was purchased.

A product purchased from Google Play will be automatically downloaded and installed on the device - The app is activated automatically and there is no need to enter a license key or registration code for activation.

When a product is purchased directly from www.avg.com, an email with the download link and license key for activation will be sent to you upon purchase approval. On your mobile device, go to the download link and follow the instructions on the screen to enter the license key and activate the app.

When a product is purchased from a third party online app store, a similar method will be used - you will receive an email from the online store, containing the relevant activation information.

A product purchased from a retailer will have a license card and activation instructions attached to it.

To enter your license key, tap on Menu > License and follow the instruction on screen.

The number of devices on which you can install the app is subject to the purchase policy of the store from which the app was purchased.

The need to purchase AVG AntiVirus for Android again for a new mobile device is subject to the purchase policy of the store from which the app was purchased.

A rooted device is generally referred to as a device on which the user has high privileged control ("root access") over the Android operating system. Rooting is essentially the process of "hacking" the device to gain full administrative control over all the files, programs and settings in the operating system that are normally protected from user modification.

The following alert on the scan results screen means that your device is rooted:

Unsecure privilege mode detected. The device is running in High Privilege mode (Rooted).

AVG's recommendation is to use non-rooted devices, that is, devices with their original factory operating system settings. Since "un-rooting" a rooted device practically involves a factory data reset, wiping all the data stored on the device and a replacement of the operating system, this action is not supported by AVG AntiVirus. The user himself has to decide on and take this action.

For additional support regarding the "un-rooting" process of a rooted device, AVG recommends contacting the company or store from which the device was originally purchased.

All users are welcome to read our FAQ section which is constantly being updated with new questions and answers.

All AVG AntiVirus users can also enjoy our product support services by opening a support ticket, as described in the next section.

To open a support ticket, click on Menu > Help > Contact us.

Fill in the necessary information in the form that will be presented to you and click on Send to submit the form and create the support ticket.

If you think you found a malicious Android app, please feel FREE forwarding it to us to check. The email address for app submission is mobilemalware@avg.com. Please try to include the following information:

1. What is the app name
2. Where did you download the app from
3. What is the app visual appearance
4. What is the app unexpected behavior
5. How does the app icon looks like
6. What is the app APK file name

Language allows you to choose the app interface language. The app currently supports 15 different languages: English (default), Korean, French, Spanish, Chinese, Dutch, German, Japanese, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Arabic and Czech.

Note that in order for the change to take effect, you will need to close the app and reopen it.

To read our privacy policy statement, please click here.

To read our terms of service, please click here.

Google®, Google Play® and Android™ are trademarks of Google Inc, in the United States and in other countries.