Pros vs. Cons on Android for Bitcoin

[joniboini]

Up until now, relying on installing modified applications and ROMs from others does not guarantee the best security for users. Instead of risking our hard-earned money, we can opt for using a separate smartphone for financial purposes and another one for entertainment purposes.

It is kinda problematic honestly. If you want to buy another phone for financial purposes then you probably want to buy a mid-range phone or above. Buying those $150 phones for that purpose is just not gonna make it for you. It would be better if you just buy a dedicated hardware wallet or built one yourself.

As Android versions become more up-to-date, fewer people seem interested in modification, in my opinion. Most individuals who engage in modifications tend to focus on older Android versions that require performance improvements. On the other hand, the latest Android versions offer satisfactory performance for everyday activities and even heavy usage.

XDA is still quite active I believe. Magisk and other tools are also being updated regularly. I believe the Android modding community is still quite active. I also believe the reason why people like to mod their phones is simply that they like customization, plus removing any adware preinstalled by the manufacturers. If you can read and verify the code, the safest way to make your phone a dedicated wallet is to develop a custom ROM for crypto on your own imo.

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[Findingnemo]

I have been an Android user since the beginning of this smartphone era and and also I am using Electrum on Android for years now and never had any issues related to security so it's depends on how we keep it safe from malicious apps installed and never shown on app drawer.

Electrum is my only choice but I faced bugs lots of time like the app keep closing on its own but with the latest version I haven't noticed any bugs.

If you're going to use your Android wallet as your primary storage then it's not recommended because we all know any device that is connected to internet is vulnerable to attacks so it's only for less amount that you don't want to touch your primary wallet everytime.

[taufik123]

I have been an Android user since the beginning of this smartphone era and and also I am using Electrum on Android for years now and never had any issues related to security so it's depends on how we keep it safe from malicious apps installed and never shown on app drawer.

To keep the Electrum Wallet safe on Android phones, don't install and download applications carelessly. there are many kinds of applications that can infect Android phones easily and steal data on Android phones.

Usually found in applications that continue to bring up ads and will eventually download Malware, so be more careful.
Android phones also have the security to detect malware early.

Electrum is my only choice but I faced bugs lots of time like the app keep closing on its own but with the latest version I haven't noticed any bugs.

For several years using Electrum I have never found a bug, especially in the latest update at this time.
Electrum runs well and never closes itself. it may be because your memory is full or it is not compatible with your Android phone version.

If you're going to use your Android wallet as your primary storage then it's not recommended because we all know any device that is connected to internet is vulnerable to attacks so it's only for less amount that you don't want to touch your primary wallet everytime.

The main wallet still uses a hardware wallet, and the Electrum wallet is for a backup wallet so the main wallet is not often opened to maintain its security.

[Findingnemo]

Electrum is my only choice but I faced bugs lots of time like the app keep closing on its own but with the latest version I haven't noticed any bugs.

For several years using Electrum I have never found a bug, especially in the latest update at this time.
Electrum runs well and never closes itself. it may be because your memory is full or it is not compatible with your Android phone version.

I was using Android 13 at that time and most latest version of electrum available on the Play Store and had more than 100GB free space so definitely its not an issue with the system in my opinion but this is about months ago after the recent update I am not facing the force stopping bug which is good but the inaccurate while calculating the transaction fee still exists.

[taufik123]

-snip-
but this is about months ago after the recent update I am not facing the force stopping bug which is good but the inaccurate while calculating the transaction fee still exists.

I didn't do a detailed check on the issue of calculating transaction fees. It's just that a few weeks ago transaction fees did spike and it became a bottleneck on the Bitcoin network.

The exchange rate provider used by Electrum is now CoikGecko and of course the rate will adjust to the rate on CoinGecko.

I haven't found any other bugs yet, but security is also being improved.

# Release 4.4.4 (May 31, 2023)
 * QML GUI:
   - fix creating multisig wallets involving BIP39 seeds (#8432)
   - fix "cannot scroll to open a lightning channel" (#8446)
   - wizard: "confirm seed" screen to normalize whitespaces (#8442)
   - fix assert on address details screen (#8420)
 * Qt GUI:
   - better handle some expected errors in SwapDialog (#8430)
 * libsecp256k1: bump bundled version to 0.3.2 (10574bb1)

https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES

[joniboini]

I was using Android 13 at that time and most latest version of electrum available on the Play Store and had more than 100GB free space so definitely its not an issue with the system in my opinion but this is about months ago after the recent update I am not facing the force stopping bug which is good but the inaccurate while calculating the transaction fee still exists.

I think the memory being referred to here is the RAM, not your storage memory. I doubt Electrum consumes a lot of RAM though. CMIIW.

If you do encounter similar problems later down the line, you can probably try to record the logs and submit the issues on the GitHub page. It is kinda hard to find the reason since your device can be the culprit, especially if they have some extra features like power saving mode, app blocker that doesn't work all the time, etc.

[taufik123]

I think the memory being referred to here is the RAM, not your storage memory. I doubt Electrum consumes a lot of RAM though. CMIIW.

Electrum only uses 6.8MB of memory on average and this has no effect at all and is not a cause of Foreclose.

If you do encounter similar problems later down the line, you can probably try to record the logs and submit the issues on the GitHub page. It is kinda hard to find the reason since your device can be the culprit, especially if they have some extra features like power saving mode, app blocker that doesn't work all the time, etc.

Foreclose bugs in an application are quite complex, they can be affected by Firmware that may not match the application and end up clashing, or ARM that is not compatible because there are some applications that do Foreclose with different types of ARM (Advanced Risc Machine)/kernel architecture or other factors.

I have never experienced a foreclose bug while using Electrum on several android phones.

[joniboini]

Electrum only uses 6.8MB of memory on average and this has no effect at all and is not a cause of Foreclose.

What app is that? What does it mean by maximum usage, the maximum amount of RAM being used by the app? I've never seen an app like this before. Is it exclusive to your manufacturer's phone?

Foreclose bugs in an application are quite complex...

This is why logs are necessary if we want to find the reason why. At the very least I don't think Electrum is resource hungry for most modern devices.

[taufik123]

What app is that? I've never seen an app like this before. Is it exclusive to your manufacturer's phone?

I use the DevCheck application to check how much memory is used for certain applications such as Electrum.
Because the feature to check RAM memory usage on my phone POCO M4 Pro Android 12 is not available.

What does it mean by maximum usage, the maximum amount of RAM being used by the app?

Yes, this is the maximum amount of RAM memory usage in the Electrum application.

This is why logs are necessary if we want to find the reason why. At the very least I don't think Electrum is resource hungry for most modern devices.

To see the LogCat you can use Android Studio and Connect Android Phone to PC with USB Debugging.
There it will be seen if the cellphone is connected and in the LogCat section, there will be information if an error or foreclose occurs in the electrum application.

[Synchronice]

So I now own an Android, I got sick of apple and wanted to change things up.

I'm genuinely interested to know what are the real pros vs. cons on owning one vs. apple?

Especially in the sense for BTC or crypto purposes in, how does android compare for anything crypto related vs. Apple?

Are they way ahead of the game here? Are they behind? I feel like both appear to want to be more crypto user friendly.....

Android is an open-source, you can modify it if you have the knowledge or use privacy-oriented custom ROMs. Btw, if you follow the basic rules, like, not to use public wifi, don't visit malicious or unknown websites and so on, you won't be at a high risk of attack.
Look at your android or ios bitcoin wallet as a small computer with CPU/GPU and RAM. Just don't consider your smartphone, that you use regularly, as a cold wallet.

The only thing that I want on IOS they care for privacy compared to Android

Actually, I don't think that some private data isn't shared and sent on Apple servers. But if you want to feel secure from 3rd party attacks, then Apple is better than android for average user.

[joniboini]

Actually, I don't think that some private data isn't shared and sent on Apple servers. But if you want to feel secure from 3rd party attacks, then Apple is better than android for average user.

What third-party attacks are you referring to? Malware apps on the play store or something else? People should never download without doing any verification, to be honest. Regardless of what platform you use, downloading a suspicious app even from a real play store would give you unnecessary risk, especially for securing your crypto.

I've read some news related to suspicious apps being listed on App Store, like the recent ChatGPT AI. That being said, Play Store definitely has more malware apps as of now. CMIIW.

[logfiles]

I've read some news related to suspicious apps being listed on App Store, like the recent ChatGPT AI. That being said, Play Store definitely has more malware apps as of now. CMIIW.

What I learnt over the years is that the more popular an Operating System is, the more malicious parties or hackers spend their time and resources to create malware for that OS because they know they can easily get a lot of victims out of it

Android OS is much more used than iOS, so this would be understandable. It's sort of similar to Malware made for Windows PCs vs Linux

[dkbit98]

Android is an open-source, you can modify it if you have the knowledge or use privacy-oriented custom ROMs. Btw, if you follow the basic rules, like, not to use public wifi, don't visit malicious or unknown websites and so on, you won't be at a high risk of attack.

Only Android base is open source, but rest of this OS is full of junk, bloatware and propriety software code, especially in phones from China, but samsung and other brands are not great also.
Using GrapheneOS is probably one of the bst open source OS you can use for your smartphone devices, it's clean Android OS with big security improvements, but it's far from perfect.
However, I think it's good enough to be used for everything related with Bitcoin apps.

Android OS is much more used than iOS, so this would be understandable. It's sort of similar to Malware made for Windows PCs vs Linux

That difference is not big at all in United States, in fact I think more are people in west are using iOS devices.
Percentage would be much different in rest of the world but many people still use cheap Android devices.

[joniboini]

Android OS is much more used than iOS, so this would be understandable. It's sort of similar to Malware made for Windows PCs vs Linux

I can see that. I can't really verify how hard it is to hack iOS and build malware targeting them since I don't know coding that much, but I can understand why scammers would rather spend their time targeting the more popular OS. This is probably why phishing apps/links or something similar becomes a popular choice for them to trick iOS users. Just goes to show that the best protection is your security awareness most of the time.

[logfiles]

That difference is not big at all in United States, in fact I think more are people in west are using iOS devices.
Percentage would be much different in rest of the world but many people still use cheap Android devices.

The Population in China alone triples that in the U.S. Now add that to India, Indonesia, Brazil... Africa. What do you think?  
Don't forget that those Cheap android devices can also run almost all apps in the playstore if the OS version is compatible and can easily be accessible to people in 3rd world countries. Tell me how that is not a huge difference world over.

That there is a jackpot for malware developers vs struggling to create malware for a less popular and very rigid iOS that is mostly concentrated in the West.

[HCP]

Indeed... malware devs aren't likely to waste time trying to implement malware for a closed ecosystem like iOS when it is likely much easier to find and exploit issues in an open source ecosystem like Android.

Especially given the market share disparity between the two globally... Android a little over 70%, iOS under 30%, refer: https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/android-vs-apple-market-share

Although it is interesting to note that in the US, iOS has ~57% market share.


In any case, using a wallet on your phone for anything other than casual day to day spending etc is likely a "bad idea"™... certainly not a place to be storing your main stash!

[Flexystar]

There are many and let me tell you my story about the use of Apple Mycelium Vs Android Mycelium. I even had a thread about it and you can read it here. Where is Import option for Mycelium Wallet - iOS version
Yeah, I was so much frustrated about finding a simple option to import the address using a private key on my Apple that I had to create an entire thread on the forum and ask for the help. They have most shitty developments for the iOS. I believe there are many restrictions that iOS applies and thus they cant have proper apps in that version. However in case of android its open, there is huge ground to play with and thus they build the best of it. Many app restrictions are null in the android, overlays, writing data and much more is free so yeah they are the best. I know some might say it comprises the security of the same but I hardly think so. You have taken good decision and you will definitely find more trusted apps to use on your phone.

[libert19]

Android is an open-source, you can modify it if you have the knowledge or use privacy-oriented custom ROMs. Btw, if you follow the basic rules, like, not to use public wifi, don't visit malicious or unknown websites and so on, you won't be at a high risk of attack.

Only Android base is open source, but rest of this OS is full of junk, bloatware and propriety software code, especially in phones from China, but samsung and other brands are not great also.[/url]

Stick to stock android from reputable brands, you won't come across such junk (Google, Motorola, Asus). Chinese OEMs give good hardware at low cost and this low cost comes at cost of these ads.

However, most of added junk can be gotten rid of. Disable the apps that show ads, toggle ad personalization off (this is found in specific apps or in device settings), uninstall with adb, root the device, flash custom rom.

I used miui for couple years, which is notorious for showing ads. It's just that people don't bother to disable them that's what causes trouble. Device model specific search will show articles/videos on how to make it clean.

Using GrapheneOS is probably one of the bst open source OS you can use for your smartphone devices, it's clean Android OS with big security improvements, but it's far from perfect.
However, I think it's good enough to be used for everything related with Bitcoin apps.

GrapheneOS Only supports Google pixel [1].


[1] https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices

[bayu7adi]

Stick to stock android from reputable brands, you won't come across such junk (Google, Motorola, Asus). Chinese OEMs give good hardware at low cost and this low cost comes at cost of these ads.

However, most of added junk can be gotten rid of. Disable the apps that show ads, toggle ad personalization off (this is found in specific apps or in device settings), uninstall with adb, root the device, flash custom rom.

I used miui for couple years, which is notorious for showing ads. It's just that people don't bother to disable them that's what causes trouble. Device model specific search will show articles/videos on how to make it clean.

Rooting an android device and installing custom rom can be risky, especially when installing custom rom with personal customizations from unofficial developers. Simply rooting might just open the door, but installing custom rom or applications containing viruses can invite danger. it requires a more advanced level of understanding when dealing with rooting a device. doing it just to look cool is not a wise choice.

In app ads can be quite intrusive... even when disabled, there are always optional notifications to re-enable them when using apps like File Manager, Video Player, and Gallery. There are many YouTube tutorials explaining how to permanently disable personalized ads, and this only needs to be done once in a lifetime. It's highly recommended not to disrupt our activities.

When it comes to security, i'm thankful that I've been storing some BTC in my Android wallet, and I haven't encountered any security issues so far.

[taufik123]

Rooting an android device and installing custom rom can be risky, especially when installing custom rom with personal customizations from unofficial developers. Simply rooting might just open the door, but installing custom rom or applications containing viruses can invite danger. it requires a more advanced level of understanding when dealing with rooting a device. doing it just to look cool is not a wise choice.

This often happens to early adopters who are into rooting, building Custom Roms, etc.
But it is dangerous because we don't know what those who do Custom Rom embed in it.
There could be malware, RATs, or keyloggers that will record everything you do.

I avoid Custom Roms etc for devices that are used to install private wallets.

In app ads can be quite intrusive... even when disabled, there are always optional notifications to re-enable them when using apps like File Manager, Video Player, and Gallery. There are many YouTube tutorials explaining how to permanently disable personalized ads, and this only needs to be done once in a lifetime. It's highly recommended not to disrupt our activities.

When it comes to security, i'm thankful that I've been storing some BTC in my Android wallet, and I haven't encountered any security issues so far.

This can be called Bloatware which is pre-installed.
Many applications do embed advertisements in them, especially in applications that are widely loaded on new smartphones,
it is indeed a collaboration that requires vendors to directly provide applications full of advertisements.

It's easy to remove it all, and can be learned on youtube.