My Android is hot, slow or draining. Is that spyware?

Battery draining faster. Running hot. Using more data than it used to. Restarting on its own. Slow to open things.

You will find all of these on every list of signs your phone is hacked. Here is the part those lists leave out.

These signs are weak evidence

Every one of them has ordinary explanations that are far more likely.

Batteries wear out. A phone more than two years old holds noticeably less charge than it did, and that alone explains most battery worry. Phone updates make older phones slower and hotter. Apps update themselves and change how much data they use. Poor mobile reception makes a phone work harder and run hot, because it keeps hunting for signal.

Monitoring software can cause these things. So can a tired battery. The symptom does not tell you which, and a website that treats it as proof is not being straight with you.

That is not us telling you to ignore your instinct. It is us telling you that this particular evidence cannot carry the weight people put on it, so you do not have to lie awake reading symptom lists.

What is worth more than any of these signs

One question. Has someone had your phone in their hands, while knowing your passcode?

Hidden monitoring software nearly always needs both. If nobody has had both, this is unlikely. If someone has, that matters far more than how warm your phone gets.

Using iPhone instead? Read the iPhone version of this page.

Worth checking on your Android phone anyway

Check your battery. Settings, then Battery, then look at battery usage by app. Exact wording differs between Samsung, Pixel, Oppo and the rest. An app you do not recognise near the top of that list is more interesting than the phone being warm.

Check your data use. Settings, then Network & internet, then the data usage screen (on Samsung, Connections then Data usage). Look for anything unfamiliar using data in the background.

Check Accessibility. This is the important one. Settings, then Accessibility (on some phones, including Oppo and Xiaomi, it sits under Additional settings, so search your settings for Accessibility if it is not there). Monitoring apps commonly use this permission because it lets an app read what is on your screen. Something switched on here that you did not turn on is worth far more attention than any battery symptom.

Check device admin apps. Settings, then Security (on Samsung, Security and privacy, then More security settings; on current Pixels, Security and privacy, then More security and privacy), then Device admin apps. If you cannot find it, search your settings for device admin. This permission can stop an app being uninstalled, which is exactly why monitoring tools ask for it.

Turn on Play Protect and scan. Open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Play Protect, then Scan. It will not catch everything, and it is better than nothing.

Update your phone. Settings, then System, then Software update (on Samsung it is top level, just Settings then Software update). It closes real security holes, and the update itself notifies nobody. Be aware that an update can sometimes stop a monitoring app working, and the person watching may notice that.

One honest note about Android. Family violence technology specialists are clear that Android is more exposed to this than iPhone, and that traces are easier to hide on it. That is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to take the Accessibility and device admin checks above seriously rather than skimming them.

What not to do yet

Do not factory reset because of a warm phone. It is a big step, it can alert the person you are worried about, and it destroys anything that could later be used as proof. Please read the warning above.

If the real pattern is not about the phone at all, and it is that someone knows things about you that they should not, our page on how they might be seeing your messages and accounts is likely to be more useful than this one.

Next: what to do, in a safe order

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