

Tomaschek also stresses that even if BlueStacks is trustworthy, you should still adhere to "to basic digital privacy best practices." These include limiting the amount of personal information you share online, never clicking on shady links, and doing research before downloading any app to make sure that it's safe. And the emulated Android system is run inside of a "secure OS virtualization container, further protecting the user."īut other threats, like social engineering or phishing scams that trick you into giving up data, are still dangerous. A BlueStacks spokesperson assured Insider that every app is run inside of an "App Container," which makes sure the app can't interact with the rest of your system. "Even if you have downloaded BlueStacks from the official site, you can still download potentially malicious apps from the Google Play Store."īlueStacks can protect you from some of these apps, since they're usually designed to work on Android devices, not Macs or PCs. "You'll need to be careful," Attila Tomaschek, a digital privacy researcher from the cybersecurity firm ProPrivacy, told Insider. Over the years, cybersecurity researchers have flagged hundreds of Play Store apps that carry malware, charge you money for worthless or non-existent products, or track your personal information. However, the Google Play Store - which is where you'll be downloading the Android apps from - carries some risks. The newest version for Mac is called BlueStacks 4, while Windows users can run BlueStacks 5.

Just make sure that you download it from BlueStacks' official website. They've been around for years, and the BlueStacks emulator is considered a great way to run Android apps on your computer. BlueStacks is a legitimate company that's supported by and partnered with industry power players like AMD, Intel, and Samsung. What we mean is that the app itself is totally safe to download. BlueStacks is one of the most popular Android emulators around, and lets you run nearly any Android app on your Mac or PC.īut like any program, before you download it, you should know whether it's safe to use.

And although the two devices might seem incredibly different, they can run a lot of the same apps. If you're like most people, you probably use both a smartphone and computer every day.
