Check your Android for monitoring

Read this first

Same ground rules as the universal monitoring playbook, which is worth reading first: if the person who might be monitoring you could harm you, your safety comes before your privacy — consider reading from a device they can’t access, and know that removing access is usually visible to the person who had it. Each play notes what they might notice. Advocates at a domestic violence hotline and the guides at techsafety.org can help you plan.

On Android, monitoring comes in two forms: legitimate sharing features quietly turned on (Google account access, location sharing), and installed software holding powerful permissions. These checks cover both.

The plays

1. See every installed app — not just the home screen Settings → Apps → See all apps — read the full list slowly, including system-looking names you don't remember installing

   What this does: bypasses the hidden-icon trick. Monitoring apps hide from the launcher, not from this list — they wear bland names like "Sync Service" or "Device Health." Note anything unfamiliar and look it up from a safe device. Visibility: reading the list changes nothing.

2. Check device admin apps Settings → Apps → Special app access → Device admin apps

   What this does: lists apps holding administrator control — the power monitoring tools use to resist uninstall and survive resets of ordinary settings. On most personal phones this list is empty or contains only Find My Device. Document anything else before touching it. Visibility: deactivating an admin app is noticeable quickly.

3. Check accessibility and notification access Settings → Accessibility → Downloaded apps; and Settings → Apps → Special app access → Notification access

   What this does: checks the two permissions that turn an app into a monitor — accessibility can read screens and keystrokes, notification access reads every message that pops up. Almost nothing you chose to install needs either. Visibility: reviewing is quiet; revoking is noticed as soon as their data stops.

4. Review your Google account from a safe device Where: from a device they can't access — your Google account's security page (devices signed in), plus Google Maps location sharing and Family Link, if present

   What this does: catches monitoring that needs no software on the phone at all — a lingering signed-in session, location sharing you didn't set up, family supervision applied to an adult. Visibility: looking is invisible; signing devices out or ending shares is immediately visible.

5. Run a Play Protect scan — and check its allowlist Play Store → profile icon → Play Protect → Scan; then check Play Protect settings for any app previously marked "keep anyway"

   What this does: runs Android's built-in stalkerware detection, which flags most commercial monitoring products — and checks whether someone previously told it to ignore one, which is itself a finding. Visibility: scanning is quiet; removal is not (that's play 6).

6. When you're ready: remove on your schedule How: per the universal playbook's plan-first play — uninstall flagged apps (deactivate device admin first if needed), pair it with new screen-lock and Google account passwords, in one sitting; factory reset remains the certainty option

   What this does: makes the cut once, deliberately — apps, permissions, sessions, and passwords in the same sitting rather than a drip of visible changes. A screen-lock PIN they know counts as monitoring; it changes too. Visibility: total, by design. Plan this step, with an advocate if there's any safety concern.

You’re now covered against…

• Hidden installed monitoring — the full app list, admin powers, and accessibility hooks reviewed by name.
• No-software monitoring — account sessions and sharing checked from safe ground.
• A rushed removal — one planned cut instead of a visible drip, on your timeline.

The universal monitoring playbook covers documentation, safety planning, and the clean-slate reset in full — this is the Android-specific layer on top of it.

Progress is saved only on this device. It never leaves your phone.