13 Ways to Find Hidden Spyware on any Android Device 2023
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...
Subodh Gupta
Last updated on August 10, 2023
Subodh Gupta
Author
Subodh loves to write content whether it may be tech-related or other. After writing on tech blog for a year, he becomes passionate about it. He loves playing games and listening to music. Apart from blogging, he is addictive to the gaming PC builds and smartphone leaks.
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 spy on your phone like calls, activities, etc. Here we’ve shared the best 13 Ways to Find Hidden Spyware on any Android Device in 2023 guide.
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 devices in order to track down their location or activity.
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.
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 your 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 on others. It has a user-friendly interface and can recover deleted messages, etc. (Download Link)
mSpy: mSpy is an advanced mobile monitoring software or tool that helps you to keep track of your loved ones and employees. It’s basically designed with powerful features that let you get full visibility into their device usage. It claims one of the best phone trackers for parental control that lets you find out what they’re up to and their online activities. (Download Link)
EyeZy: EyeZy is another better spy app for Android that allows users to keep a close look at their kids, employees, or partners. It let users track accurate GPS phone tracking and geo-targeting features to enhance better safety for loved ones. You can easily peek into their individual conversations on popular chat messenger applications like WhatsApp, Snapchat, Kik, etc. (Download Link)
uMobix: uMobix is also a better choice for beginners due to its user-friendly interface and features on Android. It offers an easy experience to users who don’t want to mess with complicated designs or features. With uMobix, you can remotely activate the microphone on Android devices to listen and record the surroundings. While taking a picture using the device camera or live streaming and video recording can also be a good option if anything happens and you want proof. (Download Link)
Steps to Find Hidden Spyware on Android in 2023
There are plenty of spying apps available for Android which can be easily installed on your phone to monitor your activity, location, conversations, etc. 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 or Strange Behavior of your Smartphone
One of the easiest ways to detect hidden spyware is to check for the unusual or strange behaviour 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 the 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 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 sound crackling 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. 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.
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 travelling 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 even if 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 frozen 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 more 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.
11. Check Hidden Apps in Settings
Unfortunately, if any of the previous things happens to your device then you should check for the hidden application in the phone settings by following the steps below to ensure any suspicious application has been installed without your consent or not.
Open the Settings menu on your handset.
Go to Apps & Notifications [Application Manager].
Tap on Manage Apps > Select All from the sort list.
Now, check all the app list one by one, especially the third-party installed apps.
If any of the apps seem rogue or unknown to you, make sure to uninstall them straight away.
12. Location Symbol Randomly Appears in Status Bar
There is another thing you’ll need to notice whether the location symbol appears in the status bar suddenly or not. If the location setting is turned off and you’re not using any location-based application but the location icon is still appearing for a few seconds or minutes while using your phone out of nowhere then you should investigate suspicious application or its background usage on the device. It might be either stealing your data or tracking activity.
13. Boot the Device in Safe Mode
If your device may have a hidden spy app installed on it, you can boot it into safe mode to check. Safe mode is a diagnostic startup mode in Android that allows you to access your phone without running any third-party apps. You can check if any spy apps are on your device and disable them instantly.
Turn Off your Android device completely.
Press and hold the Power button until you see the boot logo.
Once the logo appears, release the Power button and instantly long-press the Volume Down key.
Keep pressing the volume down key until the ‘Safe mode’ message appears on the screen.
Now, release the volume down key, and the handset will boot into safe mode.
Make sure to check for suspicious apps installed on the device to find spy applications.
Once you find out, restart the device normally to exit safe mode.
Finally, search for the spy application, and uninstall it manually.
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 games or social media applications also leak user data which is similar to hacking or spying. Be safe and smart while you’re online.
