With the phone transitioning from a tool for communication to an extension of one’s personality, the amount of information it holds is enormous. From contacts to pictures to workout data to social media to what-have-you, the phone definitely has a vital role to play in one’s life. Making this situation a worrisome one is the constantly increasing number of people trying to push malware, spyware, and ransomware into your mobiles through various methods. Protecting the phone, therefore, becomes all the more important.

The good news is that there are a number of free antivirus software for mobile phones. Listed below are some of the best ones that you could use to keep your phone safe.

• Avira Antivirus Security Free : If you have an Android device, the Avira can be easily installed in it. It will regularly check for threats in the external storage devices that are connected to your mobile. It also shows apps which access your private information. Updated apps are constantly rescanned to ensure they are virus-free. It has an anti-theft tool to detect your device when lost and it also allows you to blacklist numbers that are spam-callers. Though it will scan your mobile every day, you can start a manual scan if required at any time. When threats are detected, it will provide you with alerts so you can act accordingly. It also cleans up viruses, malware, Trojans, malicious URLs, and infected SD cards. This antivirus focuses on protecting your privacy by preventing improper app permissions.
• Bitdefender Antivirus Free: This super-lite tool allows you to scan for viruses and also check if the SD card has any malicious content. Once you manually choose to scan your mobile, it will throw up results with the option to delete the undesired content. It does not store virus signatures on the device and is super-light on your mobile. The free version has slightly fewer features compared to the paid version but is definitely useful to keep your mobile safe.
• Security Master: Another free antivirus software, Security Master checks for suspected viruses, malicious ads, hacking tools, Trojans, and other vulnerabilities — all with a single tap. It also provides a suite of privacy and security-related tools to keep your phone safe. Any app is auto-scanned during installation, so threats are detected and blocked. It also prevents anyone from opening any of your apps (or selected apps) without authentication. The coolest factor is that you can set up an “intruder selfie” which will take a photo of a person who tries to open your phone or enters an incorrect password.
• AVG AntiVirus Free: One of the first free antivirus software to be hugely popular, AVG allows you to run a malware scan at any time. Caches and junk files can be regularly cleaned up and select files can be stored in an internal vault. It also allows you to set permissions for various apps in levels like high, medium, and low, depending on the sensitivity of the information it has.