You’re Being Too Trusting with Your Down-Time: It’s Time to Audit Your Apps

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The average person has 40 to 80 apps installed on their phone (Business of Apps). It isn’t as bad as it used to be. If you have one of the newer model iPhones or Samsung devices and you’re not using an app that often, it will automatically remove it, and it’s easy enough to reinstall it.

But the apps we do have, most of us don’t audit them or know much about them, other than the fact that we have them on our phones and use them sometimes.

Depending on what app expert or know-it-all you ask, you should audit your apps for updates and checks weekly to ensure you have the latest security patches and features. Yes, it sounds like a faff, but approximately 87% of mobile apps are now vulnerable to cyberattacks (Catch The Bug), and the apps you have could be one of them if you’re not auditing regularly.

If you think you’re too trusting of your downtime on your phone, read on to learn about auditing your apps.

Why You Need to Audit Your Apps

Globally, people spent 5.3 trillion hours in mobile apps during 2025. That’s insane, and it averages roughly 3.6 hours per mobile user per day.

Whether it’s TikTok doomscrolling or checking The Weather Channel, mobile apps have become an integral part of our lives.

And when it comes to mobile app security, the responsibility is as much ours as it is the mobile app developer’s. If you have a casino app downloaded, rather than playing online (which, if you click here, you will see it’s safer to do that, and there are so many options), and you don’t update the app, you’re leaving yourself vulnerable.

Websites are responsible for online consumer safety, and we’re partly responsible for mobile app safety.

And don’t think that store approval is a permanent guarantee. Developers can change ownership, business models, advertising partners, subscription terms, and data practices after installation. Since downloading, you also might have granted permissions you didn’t mean to, like the camera or your location, which isn’t a direct security risk, but do you need all these apps knowing where you are? No? It’s time to audit.

How to Audit Your Mobile Apps

Have a scroll and create an inventory for your mobile apps. You can just scroll through your phone or scroll through the ‘Your Apps’ section on iPhone or the ‘App Library’ on Samsung. You’ll be surprised by what you see and how much you don’t actually need.

Ask yourself when you last used it and if you actually need an app. Don’t be an app hoarder and delete anything you don’t need or use. If you do need it, look at the permissions you have set and see if you can change them. Don’t worry if you’re unsure, you can always remove the permissions, and the next time you go onto the app, if you need to enable permissions to use it, the app will tell you.

How Much Are Apps Tracking Our Phones?

For a deeper insight, look at how the apps are using your information. On iPhone, open Settings and go to Privacy & Security. Apple’s App Privacy Report can show when apps accessed sensitive data during the previous seven days and which internet domains they contacted. On Android, go to Settings, Security & Privacy, and then Privacy Dashboard. Android can show which apps recently accessed the camera, microphone, location, and other permissions. Its Permission Manager lets users remove access by permission type.

If you’re always bothered by notifications, you can also remove them when you’re clicking on the apps through the app managers and doing your audit.

Top tip: review your linked accounts and check for anything suspicious. This will have happened if you clicked ‘Sign in with Google’ or ‘Sign in with Apple.’

You’ll be surprised at what apps are doing with your phone that you didn’t know about.

Auditing protects your downtime. Apps compete for your attention with notifications, recommendations, streak reminders (Duolingo is awful for that), and personalized feeds. So, aside from the security risks we drilled into you in the beginning, unnecessary apps with unnecessary permissions just aren’t what you need when you’re trying to relax.

Audit your apps and take control of your privacy and security.