The best spy apps for Android

Spy apps don’t always sound good for your Android phone. However, there are a few good reasons to download one. For example, kids may not always know the safest ways to use their new phones. Of course, you should always be transparent with your kids—or anyone else you’re tracking—before you start spying on them. You’ll also want to ensure you’re in line with any local laws about spying. Once you’ve squared that away, check out our list of the best spy apps for Android.

Are spy apps legal?

Let’s dig deeper into the legalities of using Android spy apps. As with anything, laws change from city to city, state to state, and country to country. This means you will have to dig deeper into your local authorities to find a definitive answer on whether it’s legal for you to use spy apps, also known as “stalkerware” or “spyware.”

That said, secretly spying on any adult’s phone is illegal in the USA. This is clearly stated under the Wiretap Act (18 U.S.C. § 2511). In short, this is considered a form of “wiretapping” or “eavesdropping.”

In short, you can’t use apps like these on someone without them knowing about them first. It’s against the law.

The government has strong reasons to enforce these anti-spying laws, as technological advancement makes knowing everything about a person straightforward and affordable. We’ve already seen plenty of lawsuits regarding spy apps over the years.

A smartphone can access your emails, messages, location, banking information, and more. As a result, spy apps have become a standard tool for abusive partners, criminals, and other wrongdoers.

All that said, there are legal and moral ways to use Android spy apps. Of course, you can use spy apps on your own devices to track or monitor them. Additionally, you can legally install spy apps on your children’s devices without their consent or knowledge, but that does open up some ethical questions.

It’s also common for employers to install such apps on company devices. Permission from the employee is still necessary. Similarly, you could ask anyone else to consent to installing such software on their devices for any given reason.

mSpy is an app built around the idea that knowing is always better than hoping. Loaded with features, it gives you a clear picture of the user’s digital world. With advanced GPS tracking, you’ll always know where they are. Detailed call monitoring lets you know who they are and who’s calling them. And with social media monitoring—including Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat—you’ll know what they’re saying and to whom they’re saying it. Installing mSpy on a target device gives you advanced spying metrics and all the insight you need to make informed decisions. There are various subscription plans. $48.99 monthly, $27.99 for three months, and $11.66 monthly for an annual subscription.

Cerberus is a personal phone tracker app. That’s right—it keeps an eye on your phone rather than someone else’s.

It helps you find a lost or stolen smartphone and has several additional features. These include taking photos of the potential thief, sending SMS commands, finding the phone on a map, and locking and wiping your data. It won’t help you track other people’s devices, but you can spy on whoever stole yours. The subscription service starts at a very reasonable $5 per year for a single device and scales up from there.

FlexiSpy is one of the more powerful spy apps on Android. Of course, you have to be extra careful with its impressive features. It lets you do the things people might be afraid of, including turning on the microphone to listen to a device’s surroundings, monitoring chat apps, remote camera capture, keylogging, and the ability to hide from antivirus apps and the app drawer thoroughly. The only downside is that it’s pretty expensive. There are three subscriptions available: lite, premium, and extreme. Lite is available for $49.95; premium starts at $79 monthly, $119 for 3 months, and $179 for a year. The Extreme version has all the features and is priced at $119 monthly, $239 for 3 months, and $419 for a year.

Google Family Link

Price: Free

Google Family Link allows parents to track their kids through their Google account. The app lets you view activity on the child’s device, manage apps, and recommend apps. You can also set device limits and lock the device if necessary.

Family Link did replace an older Google service, so not all features were perfect at launch. Some people ran into connectivity issues and bugs, but the experience should work fine for most people. Best of all, it’s an entirely free option.

Find My Device by Google

Price: Free

Google’s Find My Device app is probably the best lost or stolen phone app for Android. You can quickly see your phone or other Google accessories on a map for their location. Additionally, you can wipe the phone, ring it, or secure (lock) the device at will. However, you can’t take pictures or anything like you can with Cerberus. Overall, it’s a straightforward method for keeping track of where your phone is.

Prey Anti Theft

Price: Free

Prey Anti-Theft is another find-my-device-style app. This one is entirely free and has some decent features. They include the usual array of find-my-phone features like GPS tracking, phone locking, and sending alarms through the phone. However, Prey can also take pictures with the camera, identify nearby Wi-Fi hotspots, and keep track of things like the device’s MAC address. That’s not a bad set of features when you get them for free.

Spyera is one of the most intense spy apps for Android. It boasts simple features for people like parents. However, we can’t imagine a use case where something this intense is necessary for outside enterprise use. It has many features, including the ability to hide itself from everywhere. It also comes with remote control support, SMS spoofing, and other unusual behavior. It’s costly, so we don’t recommend it to average folks. It’s also unavailable on Google Play, so download the app from its official website. The price varies from device to device. For an Android smartphone, you can get it for $89 per month and $69 for Android tablets.

iSharing

Price: Free /In-app purchases ($2.99 – $129.99 per item)

iSharing is a family GPS location tracker that provides real-time location sharing for parents and kids. Features include location alerts, proximity notifications, phone tracking, panic alerts, and walkie-talkie functionality. It offers peace of mind and quick communication, ensuring your family’s safety.

OEM Find My Phone

Price: Free

Several phone manufacturers have phone-finding services as part of their software experience. One notable example is Samsung. You log in with your Samsung account, and you can find your device with its service. It runs parallel with Google’s Find My Device for a potent one-two punch. You can lock (or unlock) your phone and find it on a map; other features are also available. It’s worth looking to see if your phone has something like this.

XNSPY is another great spying app on our list. It has features like monitoring call logs, GPS tracking, web browsing, chat access, and other tracking stuff. However, it’s more affordable than most of its bigger competitors, like FlexiSpy and Spyera. This is a good option for businesses or families with money to spend. Still, families may want to try Google Family Link or Kiddie Parental Controls before something more robust like this. It has a basic and a premium subscription. You can get the essential yearly subscription for $59.99. The premium subscription with all the features costs $89.99 a year.

How to check for and remove spy apps

Of course, some of these apps may be on your device without your knowledge, and you may want to find out. Unfortunately, many of the usual methods don’t work well with how well these hide. However, there are a few ways to see if something may be spying on you.

• The app GlassWire lets you monitor data on your device. You can easily see when a spy app returns data to its host. We recommend this first because spy apps can hide from task managers and antivirus apps but can’t hide their data usage.
• Some antivirus apps may still detect the app if the host doesn’t hide it well enough. You can check out our list of the best ones here.
• You can find uninstall guides for most big spy apps. For instance, here’s one for FlexiSpy, and here’s one for mSpy.
• As a temporary solution, you can put the phone in airplane mode. Spy apps rely on the ability to send data back to the host, and they can’t if you’re not connected to any networks.
• If all else fails, you can factory reset the phone. This should wipe out every app except those pre-installed by the OEM.

If we missed any good spy apps for Android, tell us about them in the comments!