Google Play / tools / AVG ANTIVIRUS & SECURITY
REVIEW
AVG AntiVirus does work Google Play Protect mostly already does.
Free, well-rated, and competently engineered — but the Android threat landscape, and the corporate history behind this app, complicate the recommendation.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 11, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
AVG AntiVirus & Security
AVG MOBILE
OUR SCORE
6.4
GOOGLE PLAY
★ 4.6
PRICE
Free
In-app purchases
AVG AntiVirus & Security sits in a strange spot on Android. The app has 310,000 Play Store reviews, a 4.6-star rating, and a malware engine that scores at the top of every independent lab benchmark that tests it. By the conventional metrics, it’s one of the best free security apps you can install. The question isn’t whether AVG works. The question is whether you need it.
Android in 2026 is not the Android of 2014. Google Play Protect ships on by default, scans every installed app against Google’s malware database, and runs in the background continuously. For a user who installs only from the Play Store and doesn’t grant accessibility permissions to anything sketchy, the residual threat surface AVG covers is narrow — sideloaded APKs, phishing links, public Wi-Fi exposure, and the long tail of grey-market apps that slip past Play’s automated review.
Then there’s the question of who you’re trusting. AVG is owned by Gen Digital, the 2022 conglomerate that merged NortonLifeLock with Avast (which had already absorbed AVG in 2016). In 2020, the same year as the merger talks, Avast’s subsidiary Jumpshot was caught selling user browsing data — harvested from Avast and AVG products — to corporate clients. Avast shut Jumpshot down within days and Gen Digital is a different company now, but security products are bought on trust, and the receipt is in the record.
On a modern Android phone with Play Protect on and sideloading off, AVG is a second padlock on a door that already has one.
FEATURES
AVG AntiVirus & Security is a free Android security app from AVG Mobile, a Gen Digital brand. It scans installed apps and downloaded files against AVG's malware signature database, watches new installs in real time, and bundles a handful of adjacent security utilities: app permission review, Wi-Fi network scanner, anti-theft device tracking, and a junk cleaner that surfaces cache and leftover files.
A paid Pro tier unlocks features the free version withholds — app locking (PIN/fingerprint gates for individual apps), a camera-trap that snaps a photo of anyone who fails a lock-screen attempt, and ad-free use. AVG also pushes a separate VPN product, AVG Secure VPN, as an upsell from inside this app.
Engine-wise, AVG and Avast share the same scanning core since Avast acquired AVG in 2016 and both products were folded into NortonLifeLock's 2022 merger that became Gen Digital. AV-Test and AV-Comparatives have historically rated the shared engine at or near the top of Android malware detection benchmarks. The free tier is ad-supported with persistent upsell prompts to Pro.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The detection engine is genuinely competent. Independent labs that test Android antivirus products — AV-Test in particular — have consistently scored the AVG/Avast engine at 100% or near-100% on their detection corpus over multiple cycles. The real-time scan-on-install hook fires fast, and the UI surfaces results without theatrics.
The Wi-Fi network scanner is the most useful non-malware feature. Pointed at a hotel or café network, it flags man-in-the-middle exposure and weak encryption clearly enough that a non-technical user can act on it. The app permission review is similarly well-presented — it groups apps by what they can reach (camera, contacts, location) rather than dumping a system-settings-style list.
At zero cost, the floor is high. A user who sideloads APKs from outside Play, who installs apps that ask for accessibility permissions, or who shares a phone with kids who install games freely is meaningfully safer with AVG running than without.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
Google Play Protect, built into every Google-services Android phone, already scans installed apps and new installs against Google's own malware database — and Google's signature feed is, by most measures, comparable to AVG's on apps distributed through Play. For a user who installs only from the Play Store and keeps Play Protect on (the default), AVG's malware detection is largely redundant.
The corporate history matters. In January 2020, an investigation by Motherboard and PCMag revealed that Avast's subsidiary Jumpshot had been selling granular browsing data harvested from Avast and AVG users to corporate clients. Avast shut Jumpshot down within days, but the episode is on the record and it happened to the company that ships this app. Gen Digital has new ownership and new policies, but a security product trades on trust, and that trust took a real hit.
The free tier is noisy. Banner ads, full-screen Pro upsells after scans, and notifications nudging toward AVG Secure VPN add up to an experience that feels less like a tool and more like a funnel. Bitdefender Mobile Security and Malwarebytes both ship cleaner free tiers, and Bitdefender's paid product is generally cheaper than AVG Pro.
CONCLUSION
Install AVG if you sideload often, share your phone widely, or want a second opinion alongside Play Protect that you can audit. Skip it if you install only from the Play Store on a modern Android phone — Play Protect plus careful permission hygiene covers most of what AVG would catch, without the upsells. If you do want a paid Android security suite, price Bitdefender against AVG Pro before subscribing.