Any add-on anti-malware package is indistinguishable from malware, and the internal mechanisms and internal security of iOS and iPadOS block that access.
More than a little of the anti-malware around is seemingly itself malware, too. Malware that doesn’t like to share. Some of it has uploaded and sold all of your activity. That’s anti-malware that has been selling your data. Not malware.
Apple scans app submissions, and blocks the interfaces that anti-malware would need to use. Those interfaces are the same sorts of interfaces that malware wants and needs, too.
Getting apps onto the iPhone or iPad involves downloading from the app store, or using Xcode or otherwise side-loading locally, and all but the app store is rarely encountered.
There is some malware available for iOS and iPadOS, but it’s only rarely encountered, and it’s very expensive. Unlike the market for Windows, iOS malware is targeted at specific folks. This means political dissidents, political activists, investigative reporters, and those with access to classified or sensitive or large-scale financial data. And add-on anti-malware won’t help against that stuff. And those folks have other risks.
Expensive malware? There have been million dollar bug bounties offered for iOS malware. And each use of the malware using those vulnerabilities risks exposing the exploits, which risks those exploits then being fixed.
What most iOS and iPhone folks get bagged by? Phishing. Social engineering. Getting faked out of an Apple ID password. Getting asked to add a rogue calendar containing spam appointments. Credential stuffing from password re-use. Anti-malware does little or nothing about those messes, too.
No, there’s no anti-malware for iOS or iPadOS or watchOS or tvOS.
And what anti-malware can access on macOS is getting locked down, too.
Nor for the vast majority of us would that anti-malware even be necessary.
And if you’re in one of the groups where heightened security is appropriate, there are other risks and mitigations to consider.
