18+ Pros and Cons of Encrypting Android Phone (explained)

The process of “android encryption” is a very hot topic that has been discussed amongst people lately discussed. The trending topic of “cell phone encryption is more common nowadays than before.

Many companies and individuals have been spending ample time wondering whether it is a good idea to encrypt cell phones. They also researched if the pros of the encryption of android cell phone outsourcing outweigh the cons or whether the case is vice versa.

It is confirmed that the information is protected much more substantially than ever before. But certainly, there are some risks associated with when an employee refuses to hand over the password of encryption to the employer.

Table of Contents

Pros of Android Encryption are:

It’s Easy to Do:

One of the biggest advantages of android encryption is that it does not require a complicated or complex process. All the android operating systems since ‘2.3’ have some built-in encryption available.

Assuming that you have one of the latest operating systems, the option of encryption is a part of the security menu in Settings. One cannot use their phone while the process of encryption is going on, and the whole process may take an hour or sometimes a bit more than that.

It is a good Security Booster:

This is another one of the most popular advantages of android encryption. It is that encryption makes their phones more secure and safe. Encryption tends to scramble the data on the data, and that is why people cannot find it without the decryption key, which can be either or a password or a screen pattern.

Also, Encryption is a smart thing to do before selling a cell phone. It prevents the next user from accessing the previous files of the former user.

It Will not Drastically Affect Performance:

It is often the most thought topic about encryption that whether the phone’s performance will be affected by it or if it will remain the same. They often tend to worry about a considerable decline in the phone’s performance.

But one can rest assured that one of the reasons why gadget owners choose to encrypt their smartphones is because doing so should not really hinder how a device performs. Something that may seem slightly different in an encrypted is that the phones may take slightly longer to unlock.

Do not have to install any extra apps.

It is an inbuilt feature of an Android phone. So, people do not need to install any Android app to encrypt our Android mobile phones.

They can use this inbuilt feature and make the existing Android phone fully encrypted to secure every single data available there in the cell phone.

App data also gets encrypted:

Encryption not only secures the phone, but it also secures the app data in the phone as well. All your media, like photos, videos, applications, etc.

It will be encrypted without a doubt, but your installed app’s data will also get encrypted. So, no one would ever get to access anything from your encrypted Android phone.

Secure the phone from getting retrieved:

To understand the advantage of encryption better, you can consider a situation when you want to sell your current smartphone. It goes without saying that even after deleting any file or folder, we can recover it back by using some software applications.

But with encryption, it is not possible. So, if you want to sell a smartphone, you generally format the device, encrypt it, and hand it over to the next user of that phone. And the new user, after buying it from you, cannot access your deleted data.

The cons of Android Encryption are as follows:

Not available on all Android phones:

The encryption method is quite a compelling method for securing your mobile data. Because it is robust. And, also it is quite a time-consuming process and needs much better hardware to perform its task. It is not available in a cheaper version of devices configured on Android phones.

If your Android version is on a cheap hardware, then you will find a considerable lag in the phone’s performance. In other words, if your Android phone hardware is correct, you will see a minute performance decrease. But, for cheaper Android phone hardware, it will be much slower than the former encrypting Android phone.

It Does not Offer a Password Recovery Option:

This is probably one of the biggest downsides of the encryption process. People cannot access the data on an encrypted phone if by any chance, they forget the associated password with your encryption.

This is because android encryption does not offer any password recovery option, which can be considered the major drawback of this process. The one and only way to decrypt your Android phone is to factory reset your Android device. Nothing else.

It is Not Available on the Low-End Androids:

Android started requiring smartphones that use that operating system to support encryption by 2015. But, the lesser expensive phones get an exemption.

That is because encryption would place many demands on devices that already lack processing power and other capabilities because of their price points.

It is Not a Feature to Turn On and Off at Will:

The android operating system is considered to be a user-friendly operating system. It is pretty simple to do things like clear the app’s cache, change the app’s notification settings, etc. But encryption is pretty different.

Disabling the encryption is not as simple as tweaking a setting. The only option here is to restore the phone to factory settings. Doing that deletes all the information about the device.

Encryption cannot be done using an app:

If your Android phone does not have an inbuilt encryption feature, you can’t do it by using any third-party Android app.

If any Android app claims that it can encrypt your Android phone, then do not believe it because it can be a fake app. No Android app can encrypt your whole Android phone but can only encrypt some specific Android apps.

It’s quite a lengthy and time-consuming process:

To complete the method of encrypting, an Android phone may take up to an hour of time or sometimes even more than that. In addition, encryption does not allow you to use your phone. Also, it takes a lot of battery on your Android phone to complete this encryption process. So, you need to plug your Android phone into the charger until the process is totally completed.

The above-written pros and cons of Android phone encryption should help you make a confident and informed decision about whether encryption is the correct precaution to take with your phone. Besides evaluating the various aspects here and applying them to your life and usage habits, you should rather consider the value of the phone’s data.