Is Android safe for wallets?

[corel]

If anyone has experience managing wallets on Android, tell me if your funds have disappeared some time?

Has Android system spying for private keys?

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

[Findingnemo]

I have been using Electrum on my android for years even with so many apps installed and my funds not disappeared.

Android is weak when it comes to privacy is just myth, and your OS is not capable of collecting or spying the data but the apps you're installing over it like official Google apps are pre-installed on every android which surely does collect data but unlikely to look for private keys unless it's a malware that you installed.

[mocacinno]

I've been around for quite a while, and so far i haven't seen a lot of people losing funds using wallets on android. It happens from time to time, but usually it's people infecting their phone, installing hacked version of their wallet, installing a vulnerable wallet alltogether or storing their wallet or seed phrase in the cloud. Personally, i have been keeping some pocket change on my cellphone for many, many years and i've never lost funds. This being said, it's a bad idea to keep more than pocket change on any hot wallet! A hot wallet is for spending, buying small stuff either from your desktop wallet or the wallet on your phone. I think the hot wallet on my phone never exceeds a fiat value of 100€, the hot wallet on my desktop PC never reaches more than a fiat value of 500€.

If you want to keep more than pocket change, invest in a cold wallet (an airgapped wallet, properly generated paper wallet or a hardware wallet).

[Kelward]

From my personal experience with android I can tell you that it's very safe for wallets, I've never lost my funds or had any issues up till now, I've not also heard of any complaints from friends that uses androids for their wallets. I believe that people's android phones are hacked because of their negligence and ignorance, it has nothing to do with the inbuilt functions of the android. I download wallets from play store on my Android, it's left for me to make sure that it's not a fake wallet that I'm downloading, there are lots of scams on the internet and it's everybody's responsibility to protect themselves from the criminals online.

[Hazink]

I have been using both Blue Wallet and Electrum on my Android for years now, and I have not had any issues with funds missing from the wallet.

The only time you should worry about using an Android wallet is if the wallet is not trusted or you downloaded the clone of a legit wallet.

Another risk that is associated with Android and other devices is if you use the device to browse the internet, always the danger of malware from where you don't expect it, clipboard virus, etc. If it's for funds to magically disappear from the wallet, I have never seen such.

[ABCbits]

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

FYI, Android OS that comes from the phone company isn't pure since it comes with many preinstalled apps that usually can't be disabled or deleted. Some of those phone company even collect and sell/share some of our data. Although i don't think they would collect our private key, password or similar data.

[Charles-Tim]

Online wallets are not safe like cold wallet. You can have the coins you want to be spending on Android while have the other coins on cold wallets instead.

I have been using Android but I make sure I avoid malware, not downloading anyhow apps and disable downloads from other apps unless I grant it access to do it. I am mindful of files to download.

[btcltcdigger]

If anyone has experience managing wallets on Android, tell me if your funds have disappeared some time?

Has Android system spying for private keys?

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

Think of it this way, it has access to the interent if it's connected to WiFi or 4g, so that inheritly makes it less safe than a hardware wallet.
Sure, it has google backed security on it, since android is a google company, but still, hackers are smart, and there's probably dozens of exploits still out there undetected

[mk4]

(correctly) airgapped computer > Hardware wallet > rooted and well-configured android > iPhone > android

[ContentWriter]

Anything is possible so you have to put in a little effort in making sure that your funds are safe. You just have to make sure that certain safety measures are employed by you as  user of your android. Be sure that all apps are from the right source such s Google Play. Most of the security breches I hve red bout re usully linked with the users being phished of using their wllets with free WI-FI. apart from these and a few others, I believe that the use of android-based wallets are very safe.

[Popkon6]

If anyone has experience managing wallets on Android, tell me if your funds have disappeared some time?

Has Android system spying for private keys?

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

I am using wallet from my Android but till now I have not faced any problem, from my real experience I have been using it for a long time by downloading wallet from play store. No matter how strong the wallet is, if the private key cannot be kept safe then no wallet is safe. We have to keep the key of our wallet in the right place, but it should be written on a piece of paper or in a diary and kept in a very safe place.
If you are careless in using Android phone and different people touch your phone and your phone gets hacked, I do not see any fault of Android phone or wallet. Everyone is responsible for keeping their wallet and private key safe.

[hugeblack]

A clean/restored Android phone is usually a good tool as part of cold storage where you can manage your  xPub (watching-only version) and configure the transaction to be signed securely in cold storage system.

As for using it as a hot wallet or converting an old phone to cold storage, there are better and cheaper solutions, you can buy a USB flash drive and burn tailsOS to it and then use it with your old PC, your clean phone will be the watch-only wallet.

[SatoPrincess]

Android users have access to a wider range of crypto apps. You can download Electrum and Blue Wallet on Playstore but you can’t get Electrum on AppStore so the alternative for an iPhone user is downloading Blue Wallet (which IMO is equally good btw). But because of their flexibility, there are a lot of malware apps on Playstore so one has to be careful when downloading stuff.  The best protection is not to download stuff from unknown sources or click on suspicious links on your devices.

I’d like to also mention that hot wallets whether iOS or android cannot be as secure as cold wallets so make sure to only hodl small amounts in your mobile wallets. If you have a significant amount of coins, I suggest you invest in cold storage.

[Felicity_Tide]

If anyone has experience managing wallets on Android, tell me if your funds have disappeared some time?

Has Android system spying for private keys?

Not sure of how modern Android phones are made these days, but I think they always find ways to extract user data, all in the name of improving user experience and other stuff, which might not even be the primary reason though.

Talking of PK, I don't think such data can be collected, considering how it is generated and the emphasis most wallet application make before issuing one. But there might be some issue when the user starts handling the keys, such as copying and pasting on the same device, but on a different application.

I have a friend who got hacked, though the mistake was from his end. He copied the seed phrase of all his wallets, and stored them on his gmail. His Gmail gave the hacker access to both his X account and his two wallet that had funds.

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

Can't really tell though.
I have doubts for my own device and every app i come across.
Even though I'm very careful, I still feel that using an Android phone is risky.

[Ammar M. A.]

I installed & only have a crypto wallet on Android because of limited funds to buy a hardware wallet. I use an OKX developed wallet, and as far as my usage goes, I have never experienced any issues. I use it because I have no choice (for now), if you have a lot of assets, it's better to stay away from android wallets that are not open source.

WalletScrutiny can help you to look deeper, so before using anything, it's better to find out first on that site.

Source:
1. https://walletscrutiny.com

- Ammar M. A.

[Awaklara]

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

I use a hardware wallet and also an Android wallet. I use it to divide investment assets and the one I usually use for transactions such as making deposits to casinos.
I use an Android device that only has one wallet and I don't use it for other purposes. After I don't use it, I will turn off the internet connection or turn off the device. So I will use a different device for my social needs.
I have never experienced the experience of losing from the Android wallet that I use. Of course, I don't expect that to happen.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

If anyone has experience managing wallets on Android, tell me if your funds have disappeared some time?

Be more concerned about the kind of wallet you're using than the type of devise you're accessing it from, the best recommendation for a wallet use is non custodial wallets, then after this has been put in place, know the way you store your key privately and not on that same device being used, be mindful of the things you download on that same device and links you click or sites you visits.

Has Android system spying for private keys?

I mean on a pure Android without any installed apps excepting crypto wallets + google play

If you don't save your private keys on your device you're safe, remember your Google play was connected to the Internet and that has a central server where they store all informations, including your private keys if stored on your device.

[corel]

Thanks everyone for your answers

remember your Google play was connected to the Internet and that has a central server where they store all informations, including your private keys if stored on your device.

I think I'll delete google and I'll only use those wallets that are downloadable without google play

(correctly) airgapped computer > Hardware wallet > rooted and well-configured android > iPhone > android

I think I'll deny all traffic totally and allow network access only for the one wallet in android

[moneystery]

it's the same, whether you use android or ios to install the wallet, it's still safe. what makes it more vulnerable is only when you install applications carelessly from the application store... because in most cases, data theft, spying, or keyloggers come from applications installed by users. so always make sure that the device you use to install your wallet is free from other unnecessary applications. only need to install the necessary applications. while for other activities, such as games or social media, you can use other devices.

[Apocollapse]

From what I know, Android isn't fully open source, but I haven't heard Android is a spyware, their main problem is have a weak security since they can't detect fake apps unlike iOS. Since it's not fully open source, we can say Android isn't safe for long term holding.

If you insist to use cellphone to hold most of your coins, technically you should use open source operating system, but... not many people understand this and you can make mistake which could give fatal effect.