To save you time and effort, I tested 50+ apps on my Android phone and picked the best ones to protect your safety online. I also selected a few good ones for entertainment and ensured they didn’t consume too much data or battery. Although there are many good Android apps, I recommend having ExpressVPN on your smartphone as it provides overall security. Plus, it protects against other apps and sites looking to spy on your activities. Best of all, you can try ExpressVPN confidently as it’s backed by a 30*-day money-back guarantee. Editor’s Note: Transparency is one of our core values at WizCase, so you should know we are in the same ownership group as ExpressVPN. That said, our detailed reviews follow a strict methodology that examines all relevant performance factors to help you arrive at your own informed conclusion. Get ExpressVPN for Android
The Best Android Apps to Use in 2025
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN ranks #1 in the 2025’s top-rated VPNs list, and with good reason. It offers advanced security features such as TrustedServer technology, which uses RAM-only servers that delete your data with every reboot. ExpressVPN also has its own DNS servers to handle queries instead of exposing them to third parties. It also protects you with:
Threat Manager — blocks websites and apps from tracking you so that you can browse the web securely on your Android tablet. Obfuscated servers — make your VPN traffic appear as regular traffic to restricted networks at school or work so you can use your social media apps during breaks. Disable in-app screenshots — prevents shoulder surfing by blocking screenshots of sensitive images like passwords and IP addresses on your Android. Post-quantum protection (Lightway protocol) — protects your data from being decoded in the future by quantum computers.
Its proprietary Lightway protocol also provides excellent speeds for data-heavy tasks. Even with its servers far away from me in the US and Canada, ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol kept the speed loss at a minimum so I averaged 94Mbps. Additionally, it kept my connection stable enough to continue streaming, even as my Android phone switched between WiFi networks.
You can find ExpressVPN’s app for Android devices on the Play Store. It took me under 5 minutes to install it on my Android phone, tablet, and TV. If you can’t access the Play Store, just download the APK file from its official website and sideload it to your device. You get 8 simultaneous connections with a single purchase.
Norton Antivirus
Since Androids are more vulnerable to malware than iOS, a reliable antivirus app is necessary to protect your device. Norton’s SONAR tool spots malware strains on your device in real time. Instead of relying on a single database of known virus signatures, it monitors app behavior and uses an advanced firewall to catch novel threats. With Norton, you get:
Vulnerability Scanner — scans for untrusted certificates and KRACK vulnerabilities that attackers may exploit to access your Android phone or tablet remotely. SMS security — monitors the text messages you receive on your Android phone to check and block if any of them contain malicious URLs. App Advisor — checks if apps are safe to download, as there are plenty of malicious ones that use sophisticated techniques to bypass Google’s security checks.
Norton’s Safe Web blocks malicious websites and spam URLs in emails if you often use your smartphone to check them. Besides, it has a Safe Search feature that identifies safe sites directly from the search results so that you won’t accidentally click them. In comparison, Norton blocks 99% of viruses in real-time compared to Chrome’s 97%.
Qustodio Parental Control App
Qustodio for Android is a parental control suite for parents to monitor and manage their children’s online activities. You’ll need to set it up on your device and your child’s for it to work. Its advanced web filtering sorts sites into 29 different categories and lets you set filters to block inappropriate content. In my tests, it even blocked specific subpages on websites.
Location tracking on Qustodio’s Android app offers real-time updates and history of your children’s whereabouts. The ‘Panic Button’ lets children send an immediate SOS alert with their location to a list of trusted contacts — a life-saving feature in emergencies. Its Android app also includes:
Call and SMS Monitoring — records the details of incoming and outgoing calls and messages, though it doesn’t record the actual content of the SMS. Screentime limits — enables setting daily screen time allowances, with the flexibility to adjust limits for each day and different apps. Safe Search — automatically enforces ‘Safe Search’ on Google, Bing, and YouTube to filter inappropriate content like violence and pornography.
Using Qustodio on my Android tablet was super easy. It uses color codes to differentiate activities and alerts. The visual distinction helps you quickly identify areas of concern, like if your child is overusing certain apps. The timeline view is more intuitive than the standard list format for a quick, at-a-glance view of site visits, app usage, and screen time. Qustodio’s Basic Option covers 5 devices and has the SOS feature for Android. Even if you choose the free offer, you’ll get a month-long trial with all the premium features. The 30-day trial also applies to the paid offers for a risk-free purchase.
Dashlane Password Manager
To protect your Android smartphone from keyloggers, you’ll need a premium password manager like Dashlane. Keyloggers record your keystrokes when you log in to your accounts manually. Dashlane auto-fills your credentials, encrypts them with a 256-bit cipher, and stores them on your device in a secure vault. Here’s what you get with its Android app:
Password generator — creates complex passwords consisting of up to 40 characters with a single tap and saves them for auto-fill. Secure Notes — offers a secure vault for sensitive notes and personal data, including texts and attachments, and encrypts them on your Android phone or tablet. Built-in VPN — encrypts your traffic so you can use your Android phone safely on public networks. However, it’s not as advanced as standalone services like ExpressVPN. Dark web monitoring — scans the dark web to see if your data has been breached so that you can immediately change your passwords.
The interface displays the items you use most for quick access. To add new data, I only had to tap the ‘+’ button on my Android app and select the category. You’ll have to give Dashlane permissions for its auto-save and auto-fill features to work. With cross-device sync, any change you make on your Android app is instantly updated across all your other devices.
I recommend Dashlane Premium because it supports unlimited devices and has advanced features like dark web monitoring. You can try it risk-free with its 30-day free trial plus a month-long money-back guarantee. However, the refund policy doesn’t apply to its business offers.
Find My Device
Find My Device locates a misplaced smartphone or Android tablet. It shows real-time and last-known locations on a map and keeps a 24-hour location history. You can ring your device at full volume even if it’s in silent mode. If lost, Secure Device locks your phone, signs you out of your Google Account, and displays a custom message with your contact info on the lock screen. If recovery is unlikely, Find My Device lets you erase all data on the device. However, it won’t delete data on your SD card. The app manages all your Android devices in one place and integrates with your Google Account to keep settings synced across devices. Premium features include alerts for unauthorized SIM card changes and a step-by-step guide if your device is lost.
Signal Encrypted Instant Messaging
With Signal, you can send texts and make voice and video calls with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on your smartphone. Whatever you send can only be accessed by your recipient, as on WhatsApp. Telegram also uses E2EE but only in Secret Chats. But unlike WhatsApp, Signal doesn’t collect metadata to profile you for targeted advertisements. Signal’s disappearing messages are similar to Telegram’s self-destructing texts. Besides one-time viewable images, it offers an incognito keyboard that doesn’t record or obtain information from what you type. Although this can have its drawbacks, it’s crucial if you’re using third-party keyboards on your Android tablet.
DuckDuckGo Private Browser
DuckDuckGo blocks trackers while surfing the web on Android. Unlike Chrome which profiles you, DuckDuckGo doesn’t keep track of what you search on your phone. As a result, ads are based on your current search instead of browsing history. Its Smarter Encryption automatically redirects unencrypted sites to their encrypted HTTPS versions. DuckDuckGo’s ‘Bangs’ lets you search within websites from the search bar. By typing an exclamation mark followed by a keyword, you can quickly open a website’s subpage instead of navigating to it manually. The fire button quickly erases your browsing history and closes all tabs, while the Duck Player lets you stream YouTube on your tablet without being profiled.
ProtonMail
ProtonMail for Android provides end-to-end encrypted email services, ensuring that only the sender and receiver can read the contents. In contrast, Gmail only offers it in its ‘Confidential Mode’ while Outlook has manual encryption, which requires technical know-how. I liked its swipe gestures to delete, archive, or mark emails as read or unread with a simple swipe. While ProtonMail’s free offer is enough for most users, the paid versions have Proton VPN built-in. This combination makes Proton VPN one of the most affordable monthly VPNs in the market. For anonymity, you can send emails with aliases so that recipients can’t see your email address.
Adobe Premier Rush Video Editor
Adobe Premiere Rush for Android offers a multi-track timeline for video editing. It also includes a built-in camera function, so you can record videos and edit them on your Android tablet on the go. My favorite is its Auto Ducking feature, which automatically lowers background music during dialogues. It’s also designed for touchscreens so that you can easily drag, drop, and edit with simple gestures. You can put videos, audio, and graphics on different layers using the timeline. Since it’s a bit performance-heavy, Adobe Premier Rush isn’t suitable for older or budget-friendly Android phones with limited RAM.
Spotify Music
With Spotify, you’ll have access to over 100 million titles on-demand, including songs, podcasts, and audiobooks. The app integrates with Google Maps and Waze for easy listening while navigating and features voice commands for hands-free control on Android. You can create a playlist for every mood and occasion and enjoy offline listening through downloads. Spotify’s AI-driven Discover Weekly and Release Radar on Android let you discover music based on your preferences, while Daily Mixes curates personalized playlists that evolve with your taste. Spotify’s free offer includes ads and doesn’t let you rewind or forward tracks. You can upgrade to the paid option to overcome these limitations.
Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder
With a 44 kHz audio sampling rate, Hi-Q for Android delivers near-CD quality recordings. You can record in multiple formats like MP3, WAV, OGG, and even FLAC (experimental) and strike the right balance between audio quality and file size. It offers a widget for easy access to recording functions from the home screen and supports automatic uploads to cloud storage. Hi-Q lets you change bitrate and gain to get the best recordings in any environment. You can switch between microphones for flexibility. With WiFi Transfer, you can transfer recordings from your Android smartphone to other devices wirelessly through your router or mobile hotspot. The premium offer additionally provides speech-to-text functionality and auto-scheduled recordings.
Accuweather
While Android has a native weather app, AccuWeather is a more accurate alternative. With MinuteCast, it offers hyper-localized weather predictions for a specific street corner within the next 5 minutes. Similarly, RealFeel shows what the weather feels like given factors like humidity and UV index. AccuWeather provides deeper data, richer details, and more accurate forecasts than Android stock weather apps. Recognized by the American Meteorological Society, AccuWeather uses billions of data points. The Android app even tells you about potential allergens in your area, so you can prepare accordingly if you have allergies.
Get the Best Android Apps in 2025
With so many Android apps to choose from, it’s hard to know which ones are worth downloading. Many of them collect data, drain your battery, and have intrusive ads. Since Android devices are vulnerable to malware, it’s crucial to install known reliable apps. After extensive testing, I picked 12 apps that provide the best utility and security.
Strong passwords — use strong, unique passwords for your devices and accounts to prevent unauthorized access. Device encryption — enabling this protects your data in case your device is lost or stolen. Regular updates — keep your Android device and apps updated to ensure you have the latest security patches. App permissions — be cautious and only give necessary permissions to apps after considering their functionalities. Find My Device — activate Find My Device so you can locate your phone if it’s lost or stolen, and even wipe it remotely.
While app selection would vary depending on your preferences, ExpressVPN should be your #1 choice for security and online privacy. It protects you from packet sniffing, rogue WiFi networks, and hackers. What’s more, you can try ExpressVPN confidently as it’s backed by a 30*-day money-back guarantee. *Please note that ExpressVPN’s generous money-back guarantee applies to first-time customers only.
Summary — Top VPNs to Use Android Apps Safely in 2025
Editor’s Note: We value our relationship with our readers, and we strive to earn your trust through transparency and integrity. We are in the same ownership group as some of the industry-leading products reviewed on this site: ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and Intego. That said, our detailed reviews follow a strict methodology that examines all relevant performance factors to help you arrive at your own informed conclusion.
