My Wife has upgraded her phone and, as a consequence, I have my first smartphone (a Samsung A3).

I’ve always been a bit wary of viruses and suchlike whilst online and have Bitdefender installed on my desktop PC. My Bitdefender license allows multiple family installs and include a version for Android; is Android vulnerable and should I install Bitdefender on my (and my Wife’s) phone?

My view, others may differ.

Waste of time, your personal information is already held by multiple parties including Google, what would it be “protecting”?

As with desktop/laptop stop clicking in links for sites you don’t know, stop opening attachments on emails from people you don’t know and install adblock equivalent.

Don’t make your devices even slower my installing such malware (av software).

Samsung has it built in. ‘Device Security’ in settings.

Vast majority of AV software now is bloatware and almost malware in itself in that it slows the device down or otherwise cripples the system or gets in the way.

Not used AV on a phone in years and it’s not really needed. Viruses aren’t really the issue, just malware and you can deal with that. Be careful what apps you install. Only install those from trusted developers and check reviews, number of downloads etc. Be wary of fake copies. Or just limit what you install anyway. Majority of apps installed don’t get used much or at all.

Desktop (Windows) – ditch third party AV and use the built in Windows Defender. It does the job fine and about the only one that doesn’t cripple the system.