Its pretty easy. Most of the tools are as easy to install as any other software. The biggest hurdle is locating the correct set of tools for your device, but forums are helpful if you are patient. The bigger issue is that you now have a new attack surface to worry bout. No free lunch.
Even if you flash your phone with a custom ROM you can not be really sure. The camera might be activated by some weird chip nobody even knows exists. I think the sand method is the only way to be sure and it is also a nice reason to go to the beach with way too many cold beers.
On android maybe you can use the android.hardware.camera2 package, it has a CameraDevice.StateCallback , with that you can receive updates about the state of the camera. Maybe someone can write a small app to get notifications when the state of the camera changes?
The permissions on my Android device (Samsung, it may be different for AOSP) are wonderful. I even get notifications if an app uses unusual permissions in the background, and can easily view permissions by app and apps by permission.
Of course a less paranoid way of looking at this is to consider that the operating system might be polling its various devices and sensors in some sort of maintenance routine. Perhaps it is doing the equivalent of drive head parking, or checking for faults.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 25.2 ms ] threadLet's asssume you don't want to throw you phone into sand in hopes of getting some audible clues.
Also let's assume you don't want to upload custom ROM to your phone, unless it's super easy.
This is probably also the reason why I never would recommend anyone to use android, ever.