Privacy

Everything the APKCombo editors have written about privacy. Each piece answers a situation you are actually in rather than a category, and every app links through to its own page, with the current release and every earlier one.

Paying for a VPN: what changes

You are not buying encryption. You are buying an operator whose income does not depend on you.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Gmail against Outlook for a work mailbox

If your work runs on Exchange, this comparison is shorter than it looks.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Chrome against Firefox on Android

Only one of these lets you install an ad blocker, and that decides it for a lot of people.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
WhatsApp against Telegram, honestly

One encrypts everything by default. The other is a better messenger. They are not the same argument.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Before you factory reset: the things people forget

The transfer covers most of it. This list is the rest, and it is always the same items.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
USB debugging: what it lets in, and how to use it safely

An authorised computer can read most of your phone. That is the point, and it is why you turn it off after.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Updating apps the Play Store does not manage

Nothing reminds you. That is the entire problem, and it has three reasonable solutions.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Why an app costs more in one country than another

Regional pricing is deliberate. Pretending to be somewhere else to use it is not.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Where APK files actually come from

The question to ask is not which site, but where that site got the file.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Why your banking app will not open

It is not checking whether your phone is safe. It is checking whether Google says it is unmodified.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Messengers sorted by what is encrypted and what is not

Almost every messenger encrypts something. The question is what, and whether by default.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
What an app can see about you, and what it cannot

The interesting question is not what apps ask for. It is what they get without asking.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Getting rid of bloatware without rooting the phone

Disable is enough for almost everyone. Removal is a computer job and it comes back on a reset.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Authenticator apps you can actually move to a new phone

The codes are portable. Whether your app lets you move them is a product decision.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Running a phone with no Google Play Services

Maps, push notifications and payments are the three things that actually break.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Checking who signed an APK, the practical way

You do not need to read the certificate. You need to know whether it matches.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Checking an APK before you install it

The file is either the developer's build or somebody else's. Four checks tell you which.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Turning on encrypted DNS, and what it hides

Two minutes, no app, and your network operator stops seeing every site you look up.

2026-09-10 · 5 min read
Free VPNs: what you are actually paying with

If the VPN is free, work out what is paying for the servers before you route your traffic through them.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Permissions worth saying no to, and what stops working

Most apps handle a refusal gracefully. The ones that do not are telling you something.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Android browsers that block ads without an extension

Which browsers block ads out of the box, which need an extension, and what you give up by switching.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Keyboards that keep what you type on the phone

The keyboard is the app with the most access and the least scrutiny.

2026-09-10 · 6 min read
Photo backup that does not mean buying more Google storage

There is no free unlimited option left. There are several cheap ones and one that costs nothing but a computer.

2026-09-10 · 8 min read
Password managers that keep the vault on your phone

The vault is a file. Who holds it is the entire decision.

2026-09-10 · 7 min read