<script type='text/javascript' src='https://platform-api.sharethis.com/js/sharethis.js#property=648d93f16fc24400124f2a24&product=inline-share-buttons' async='async'></script>

Guide To Safe Apps - How To Check If An Android Or iOS App Is Safe To Install

If you don’t want to gamble and install an app or game from an untrusted place online, or you are wondering how to check if an app is s...
Guide To Safe Android Or iOS App Installation

If you don’t want to gamble and install an app or game from an untrusted place online, or you are wondering how to check if an app is safe after installing it, this guide should give you a hand.

Official app stores are not always the safest option

Based on the data released by the Android security team last year, we are about 10 times more likely to download a potentially harmful Android app if using some non-official store. Although it’s still not 100% safe, we are better off downloading from official stores.

But we sometimes want to download from non-official marketplaces, as there are many apps and games that are not available in official stores (due to their high fees). It’s riskier, though, and to minimize the risk, you should download from more reputable, trusted app stores.

However, even the official and most reputable stores cannot guarantee that their every app is safe. There are very few things a bad-wishing developer can “smuggle” into a store inside their app, but it does happen.

The best advice here would be to do your homework and to use our suggested methods of checking an app – even when downloading some lesser known apps from official stores.

Before you download…

Investigate the app store or developer

Be sure to do some detective work on the makers, their previous apps, and if possible, the rapport they have in the tech community. Twitter and Facebook are wonderful for research when it comes to seeing what people think of the app and the team behind it.

Review the reviews. For the App Store and Google Play, reviews are a good reference point. However, please know that companies can “doctor” the reviews…

In addition, one more thing you can do is a quick Google search for: “[company/dev name] scam OR virus” or similar. You might find out some not nice things about that company or dev…

In the end, trust your gut feeling: If anything seems fishy or too good to be true, it may as well be.

Inspect privacy policy, permissions

We know it’s boring, but reading the app's privacy policy may raise some red flags before it’s too late. Look for info on what the app is tracking, and what the company/developer is doing with your data. Companies can (mis) use your personal data in a myriad of ways.

A quick example. Say, you want to install and play some nice cube game. A quick look at the developer’s privacy policy reveals that they “never sell or hire out the user’s personal data to third parties” and so on. This tells you the game won’t misuse your private data.

You may also write to the devs/company and ask about anything that’s bothering you. Small studios and indie devs are usually very responsive and love hearing from their users.

Questions to ask yourself (or the devs):
  • Does the app track the user?
  • Does it ask for my social media login info?
  • Does the app leak data that can identify my device?
  • Does the app send data such as email addresses or phone numbers to a third-party?
  • Does the app send usernames and passwords over the web in plain text? Are they stored on the device using weak encryption?
A good idea is to check the app’s permissions in your device’s settings. Be extra careful with apps that require the following permissions (bad apps will ask for them without a legitimate need): full network access, preventing a device from sleep, running at startup, taking pictures and videos, knowing your location, read text messages, modify or delete SD card contents, and similar.

If you are not fine with what the app/company is requiring or doing with your data, just search for some other similar app that doesn’t do what you don’t like.

After you download…

Scan the Android APK or iOS IPA

If you're planning to install an IPA or APK file you've downloaded from some non-official source, it's a good idea to run a security check. It’s easy to do using one of the online virus scanners. It’s easy to find one too – simply search Google for "scan .apk for viruses" or "scan .ipa for viruses" and you should have many options to choose from.

Usually, such tools provide a detailed report on your IPA file or APK file. But be aware that with some there's file size limit which means your IPA or APK may be too large. In this case, try another tool.

Scan the APK

Check the app’s hash

Another way to see if you have a good APK or IPA is to check its hash code. The SHA (hash) of a file is something like a digital fingerprint of that file. If the app you're looking for has its SHA publicly mentioned by the developers, then you can compare that with the SHA of the APK or IPA you have. If the two match, your file is safe.

Again, there are apps for this on App Store and Google Play, and a simple search on Google will give you some good options. Install that app and follow the developers’ instructions on how to check a hash of an APK file or IPA file.

Check the app’s hash

In conclusion…

By using the above methods, you’ll have a greater degree of security when using apps downloaded from third-party sources. However, none these methods is 100% bulletproof, so it's better to combine methods and use more than one.

Above all, use common sense. If something seems suspicious, likely that is a bad apple.

Hopefully, this article gives you a solid idea of how to figure out if a mobile app is safe. Good luck!

/fa-solid fa-video/ Latest Tech Videos!$hide=mobile

Name

25PP,2,3G,3,4G,5,Absinthe,5,Adobe Flash,3,Ads,30,Affiliate Marketing,10,AliExpress,1,Amazon,55,Amazon Phone,1,Amazon Tablet,7,AMD,5,Android,255,Android 10,2,Android 11,2,Android 12,2,Android 6,3,Android 7,4,Android 8,9,Android 9,4,Android APK,34,Android Apps,127,Android Auto,3,Android Games,20,Android GApps,3,Android Gingerbread,2,Android Ice Cream Sandwich,8,Android Jelly Bean,21,Android KitKat,12,Android Lollipop,10,Android Marshmallow,3,Android N,5,Android Nougat‬,5,Android O,7,Android Oreo,8,Android P,2,Android PC Suites,1,Android Pie,3,Android Q,2,Android R,2,Android SDK,9,Android TV,11,Android USB Drivers,2,Android Wear,10,Angry Birds,6,Anti Virus,18,App Developer,67,Apple,799,Apple CarPlay,1,Apple Pay,3,Apple Store,19,Apple TV,121,Apple Watch,86,Apps,151,ARM,2,Asus,2,ATT,7,Baidu,2,Battery,2,Bill Gates,2,Bing,16,Bitcoin,68,Bittorrent,5,BlackBerry,11,BlackBerry App,3,Blockchain,28,Blogger,53,Blogs,85,Bluetooth,7,Business,800,BuySellAds,1,Call Center,7,Camera,9,Cars,30,CCTV,1,Certifications,28,China Mobile,3,Chrome,26,Chrome OS,6,ChromeBook,2,ChromeBox,2,Chromium,4,CISPA,1,Cloud,49,CMS,7,Communication,21,Computer,80,Cortana,1,Credit Cards,10,CRM,16,Cryptocurrency,102,Currency,74,Cyberbullying,7,Cydia,49,Cydia Apps,11,Cydia Tweaks,11,Debit Cards,7,Developers,101,Digital Camera,9,Digital Marketing,432,Digital Signage,5,Disqus,1,DMCA,1,Doodle,1,DOS,1,Downgrade,18,Dropbox,1,Drupal,3,Earn Money,84,EarPods,2,eCommerce,64,Electra,6,Electronic Arts,1,Emulator,8,Encryption,2,Entrepreneurs,116,eReader,4,eSignature,2,Ethereum,30,Evasi0n,16,eWallet,12,Facebook,140,Facebook Ads,13,Facebook Apps,20,Facebook Credits,4,Facebook Developers,4,Facebook Like,8,Facebook Marketing,14,Facebook Messenger,5,Facebook Pages,9,Facebook Photos,2,Facebook Stocks,2,FacePAD,1,FaceTime,2,FileSonic,2,Finance,218,Firefox Add-Ons,2,Firefox OS,2,Fitbit,1,Foursquare,1,FP,11,Framaroot,4,Free Stuff,27,Gadgets,238,Galaxy Nexus,2,Galaxy S-Voice,2,Game of Thrones,1,Games,85,Gaming Console,12,Gaming Laptops,15,GApps,2,GearBest,6,Gifts,6,Gmail,13,Google,253,Google +1,10,Google Ads,5,Google Adsense,3,Google Adwords,6,Google Analytics,3,Google Apps,11,Google Earth,2,Google Fit,2,Google Glass,8,Google IO Conference,4,Google Map,7,Google Music,2,Google Nexus,13,Google Nexus Player,1,Google Panda,1,Google Penguins,1,Google Play Edition,1,Google Play Store,18,Google Plus,17,Google Plus Pages,6,Google Search,45,Google TV,5,Google Voice,6,Google Wallet,1,Google+,16,Google+ App,1,Google+ Pages,6,Graphic Design,19,GreenPois0n,28,Groupon,6,GSM,3,Guest Posts,10,h3lix,2,Hack,99,Hackintosh,4,Hard Disk,14,Hard Drive,17,HDD,16,Headsets,9,HealthVault,1,Home Automation,16,Honor,1,Hootsuite,1,Hostgator,2,Hotspot Shield,1,HP,2,HTC,16,HTC One,6,HTML5,16,HTTPS,3,Huawei,4,Huawei Honor,3,Hyper-V,4,IBM,2,iCloud,31,iGoogle,2,iMac,10,Infographic,212,Instagram,26,Intel,8,Internet,577,Internet Explorer,18,Internet IPOs,1,Internet Marketing,234,Internet Protocols,4,iOS,495,iOS 10,21,iOS 11,28,iOS 12,33,iOS 13,20,iOS 14,26,iOS 15,19,iOS 16,5,iOS 17,6,iOS 4,1,iOS 5,17,iOS 5.0.1,5,iOS 5.1,9,iOS 5.1.1,12,iOS 5.2,1,iOS 5.2.1,1,iOS 6,73,iOS 6.0.1,13,iOS 6.0.2,5,iOS 6.1,21,iOS 6.1.1,3,iOS 6.1.2,4,iOS 6.1.3,7,iOS 6.1.4,4,iOS 6.1.5,2,iOS 6.1.6,2,iOS 7,58,iOS 7.0.1,2,iOS 7.0.2,2,iOS 7.0.3,1,iOS 7.0.4,2,iOS 7.0.5,1,iOS 7.0.6,5,iOS 7.1,25,iOS 7.1.1,6,iOS 7.1.2,6,iOS 8,60,iOS 8.0.1,5,iOS 8.0.2,5,iOS 8.1,12,iOS 8.1.1,2,iOS 8.1.2,1,iOS 8.1.3,1,iOS 8.2,6,iOS 8.3,5,iOS 8.4,10,iOS 8.4.1,4,iOS 9,33,iOS 9.0.1,1,iOS 9.0.2,1,iOS 9.1,6,iOS 9.2,2,iOS 9.2.1,2,iOS 9.3,3,iOS 9.3.1,2,iOS 9.3.2,4,iOS 9.3.3,4,iOS 9.3.4,2,iOS 9.3.5,2,iOS Apps,96,iOS Beta,32,iOS Games,19,IP,3,iPad,456,iPad 2,54,iPad 3,47,iPad 3G,1,iPad 4,10,iPad Air,4,iPad Apps,32,iPad Mini,29,iPad Mini 2,2,iPad Siri,4,iPadOS,77,iPhone,518,iPhone 3G,51,iPhone 3GS,6,iPhone 4,62,iPhone 4S,66,iPhone 5,32,iPhone 5C,4,iPhone 5S,14,iPhone 6,31,iPhone 6 Plus,9,iPhone 7,2,iPhone Apps,32,iPhone Siri,7,IPO,3,iPod,414,iPod Apps,18,IPv4,1,IPv5,1,IPv6,1,iShower,1,iShower Speaker,1,IT,2,iTunes,198,Jailbreak,137,Jailbreak Tools,45,Jitterbug Touch,1,Joomla,5,Kaspersky,1,Keyboards,3,Keylogger,2,Kindle,9,Kindle Fire,3,Kingo,2,KingRoot,1,Laptop,78,Lasers,1,Launchers,3,Lava,1,LCD,2,Legal,5,Lenovo,2,Lenovo ThinkPad,1,LG,9,LiberiOS,2,Lightning Cables,1,Link Building,5,LinkedIn,4,Linux,13,Lockerz,1,Logitech,1,Lync Desk Phones,1,Mac,258,Mac Mini,4,Mac OS X,202,MacBook,12,MacBook Air,18,MacBook Pro,17,Macintosh,8,macOS,121,macOS 10.12,9,macOS 10.13,9,macOS 10.14,8,macOS 10.15,9,macOS 11,22,macOS 12,11,macOS 13,2,macOS 14,3,macOS Beta,7,macOS Big Sur,22,macOS Catalina,9,macOS High Sierra,9,macOS Mojave,8,macOS Monterey,11,macOS Server,3,macOS Sierra,9,macOS Sonoma,3,macOS Ventura,2,Magento,5,Mambo,3,Maps,9,Mark Zuckerberg,2,Marketing,180,Marketplace,3,Meego,2,Megaupload,1,Meizu,1,Micromax,1,Microsoft,213,Microsoft Office,47,Microsoft SharePoint,1,Microsoft Surface,3,Microsoft Surface Pro,2,MIUI,3,Mobile,778,Mobile App Developers,55,Mobile Apps,222,Mobile Broadband,2,Mobile OS,32,Mortgage,1,Moto X,1,Motorola,6,Mouse,3,Movies,1,Mozilla Firefox,16,Music,20,MySpace,2,Nasdaq,1,Net Meeting,1,Nexus,7,NFC,1,Nikon,1,Nintendo,3,Nintendo 3DS,2,Nokia,31,Nokia Belle,2,Nokia Lumia,8,Nokia Normandy,1,Nokia Store,2,Nokia X,6,Notebook,1,Nuance,1,Office 2010,9,Office 2013,3,Office 2016,13,Office 2021,1,Office 365,13,OnePlus,1,Open Graph,1,Open Source,1,Opensn0w,1,Opera,6,Opera Mini,2,Operating System,118,Oppo,1,Oracle,3,Orkut,1,OS,47,OS X 10.10,65,OS X 10.10.1,6,OS X 10.10.2,9,OS X 10.10.3,10,OS X 10.10.4,6,OS X 10.10.5,4,OS X 10.11,25,OS X 10.11.1,3,OS X 10.11.2,2,OS X 10.11.3,2,OS X 10.11.4,2,OS X 10.11.5,3,OS X 10.11.6,2,OS X 10.8,2,OS X 10.9,37,OS X 10.9.1,2,OS X 10.9.2,5,OS X 10.9.3,12,OS X 10.9.4,7,OS X 10.9.5,5,OS X El Capitan,23,OS X Mavericks,40,OS X Mountain Lion,17,OS X SDK,9,OS X Server,48,OS X Server 3,5,OS X Server 4,15,OS X Server 5,9,OS X Yosemite,60,Outlook,14,Ovi,2,Ovi Store,1,P0sixspwn,1,P2P,1,PageRank,2,Pangu,11,Payments,34,Payoneer,2,PayPal,4,PDF,10,Personalization,1,PhotoBox,1,Photography,10,Picnik,1,Pinterest,2,PIPA,2,Piracy,3,PlayStation,6,PlayStation 4,4,Pocophone,2,Pod2g,2,Podcasts,2,Powerpoint,5,PP,2,Printers,12,Privacy,184,Programming,59,Projectors,4,PS4,4,PUBG,1,Python,2,QMobile,1,QMobile Noir,1,RAM,2,Redsn0w,23,Remote Access,9,Root Android,37,Rovio Mobile,4,S-Voice,2,Safari,46,Samsung,58,Samsung Galaxy,30,Schemer,1,Search Engine,84,Search Engine Marketing,82,Search Engine Results,57,Seas0nPass,2,Secure Socket Layer,3,Security,213,Selfie,1,SEM,86,SEO,157,SEO Tools,16,SERP,2,Server,18,Shopping,129,Signage,3,Sileo,4,SIM Card,4,Siri,12,SkyDrive,3,Skype,5,SlideShare,1,Small Business,541,Smart TV,6,Smart Watch,9,Smartphones,719,SMM,12,SMO,16,Sn0wbreeze,5,SnapChat,5,Social Media,157,Social Media Marketing,113,Social Media Optimization,73,Social Media Tools,12,Social Networking,204,Software,436,Sony,19,Sony Ericsson,5,Sony VAIO,1,Sony Xperia,3,SOPA,2,Speakers,3,Sprint,2,Spyware,4,SSD,16,SSL,2,Startups,389,Statistics,23,Stock,3,Stock Photography,6,Stock Photos,7,Storage,26,Store,58,Swift,12,Swype,1,Symbian,8,T-Mobile,4,Tablets,604,TaiG,5,TechGlobeX,3,TechGlobeX.net,1,Technology,387,Telephone,1,Television,10,Templates,6,TinyUmbrella,2,Tools,280,Torrent,4,Toshiba,2,Toshiba Satellite,1,TuneUp Utilities,1,TV,15,tvOS,72,Twitter,20,TypePad,3,Ubuntu,6,Ultrasn0w,1,Unlock,43,USB Debugging,2,uTorrent,5,Verizon,4,Video Marketing,20,Video Optimization,27,Videos,63,Vimeo,1,Virtualization,13,Virus,10,Visual Studio,3,Vlogging,3,Vlogs,3,Vodafone,2,Voice Call,22,VoIP,16,VPN,30,Wallpapers,1,Walmart,2,watchOS,84,Wearables,18,Web,275,Web Browser,31,Web Browser Plugins,5,Web Design,49,Web Development,85,Web Domains,16,Web Hosting,39,Web Servers,22,Western Digital,1,WhatsApp,8,Whited00r,1,WiFi,8,WiFi Calling,6,WiFi Hotspots,6,Windows,173,Windows 10,22,Windows 10 Enterprise,2,Windows 10 Mobile,1,Windows 10 Pro,2,Windows 10 Server,3,Windows 11,3,Windows 11 Enterprise,1,Windows 7,33,Windows 8,48,Windows 8 Pro,3,Windows 8 RT,3,Windows 8.1,6,Windows 8.1 Enterprise,1,Windows 9,4,Windows Apps,4,Windows Live,3,Windows Live Essentials,5,Windows Live Messenger,6,Windows Media Center,1,Windows Mobile,19,Windows Phone,47,Windows Phone 10,1,Windows Phone 7,10,Windows Phone 7.5,5,Windows Phone 8,9,Windows Phone 8.1,1,Windows Phone Apps,1,Windows Phone Mango,3,Windows Phone SDK,1,Windows Server,7,Windows Server 2012,2,Windows Server 2016,2,Windows Server 2019,1,Windows Server 2022,1,Windows Server 8,1,Windows Vista,5,Windows XP,6,Wireless,4,Wordpress,54,Wordpress Plugins,6,Wordpress Themes,9,WWDC,76,Xbox,6,Xbox 360,6,Xbox One,3,Xcode,85,Xiaomi,8,Yahoo,15,Yalu,3,YouTube,19,Zong,1,ZTE,1,Zune,2,Zynga,1,
ltr
item
TechGlobeX: Guide To Safe Apps - How To Check If An Android Or iOS App Is Safe To Install
Guide To Safe Apps - How To Check If An Android Or iOS App Is Safe To Install
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJtb6UvP56R4NC5XtVgjPxCDttfIDM1dTsO-hlcyQsfhTmfquz_RpFRBD_6jb-MffxCHlkWj3snpUc7EbjdUcKqb20CTZnR6DSwid98aJcZbSUk6sJ1hemFQUbbVCmhAC2goUZbv1Hjgb4/s1600/Guide+To+Safe+Android+Or+iOS+App+Installation.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJtb6UvP56R4NC5XtVgjPxCDttfIDM1dTsO-hlcyQsfhTmfquz_RpFRBD_6jb-MffxCHlkWj3snpUc7EbjdUcKqb20CTZnR6DSwid98aJcZbSUk6sJ1hemFQUbbVCmhAC2goUZbv1Hjgb4/s72-c/Guide+To+Safe+Android+Or+iOS+App+Installation.jpg
TechGlobeX
https://www.techglobex.net/2018/03/how-to-check-if-android-or-ios-app-is-safe.html
https://www.techglobex.net/
https://www.techglobex.net/
https://www.techglobex.net/2018/03/how-to-check-if-android-or-ios-app-is-safe.html
true
6015647009126982431
UTF-8
Loaded All Posts Not Found Any Posts VIEW ALL Read More Reply Cancel Reply Delete By Home PAGES POSTS View All RELATED ARTICLES: TOPIC ARCHIVE SEARCH ALL POSTS Not Found Any Post Match With Your Request Back Home Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat January February March April May June July August September October November December Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Just Now 1 Minute Ago $$1$$ minutes ago 1 Hour Ago $$1$$ hours ago Yesterday $$1$$ days ago $$1$$ weeks ago More Than 5 Weeks Ago Followers Follow THIS PREMIUM CONTENT IS LOCKED STEP 1: Share To A Social Network STEP 2: Click The Link On Your Social Network Copy All Code Select All Code All codes were copied to your clipboard Can not copy the codes / texts, please press [CTRL]+[C] (or CMD+C with Mac) to copy Table of Content