\n<\/p>\n
Android\u2019s in-built security<\/span> engine Google Play Protect has a new feature that conducts a real-time analysis of an Android app\u2019s code and blocks it from installing the app if it\u2019s considered potentially harmful.<\/p>\n Google announced in October the new real-time app scanning feature<\/a> built into Google Play Protect that the company says can help catch malicious or fake sideloaded apps installed from outside the app store. These apps will morph their appearance or use AI to alter the apps\u2019 code in a way that helps them avoid detection.<\/p>\n Google said this Play Protect feature now recommends a real-time app scan for any new app that has never been scanned before. This consists of a code analysis that will \u201cextract important signals from the app and send them to the Play Protect backend infrastructure for a code-level evaluation.\u201d<\/p>\n Android\u2019s app store has billions of apps that Google screens for malware, though not always successfully<\/a>. Many device owners also take to sideloading Android apps, which skirt the app store altogether and its many lines of defense. Sideloading remains a popular feature for Android users, even if it means having to trust that the app they are installing is not malicious.<\/p>\n One of the key reasons for Google to introduce its enhanced real-time code-level scanning feature is to counter the proliferation of predatory loan apps. These apps have resulted in the harassment of users, leading in some cases to victims taking their own lives. Bad actors gain access to user data, including contacts and photos, which are used to bully users. TechCrunch extensively covered<\/a> the impact of predatory loan apps on Indian users. Google also said it took down over 3,500 such apps in the year for violating its policy requirements. Attackers still find ways to target their victims.<\/p>\n \u201cOur policies are making it tougher for predatory apps to be listed on the Play Store. But the bad actors are inventive, and they are finding new ways to trick people and that is why we take additional measures,\u201d said Saikat Mitra, Google\u2019s head of trust and safety for APAC at the Google for India event in New Delhi last month, while announcing the update to Play Protect.<\/p>\n Google initially launched the Play Protect update in India, with plans to soon expand internationally. TechCrunch tried the feature out for ourselves by loading a phone with a variety of malicious and bad apps to see what would make it through.<\/p>\n We tried to install more than 30 different malicious apps, from stalkerware and spyware to predatory loan apps and fake ripoffs of popular apps. Google Play Protect blocked nearly all of the malicious apps with warnings like, \u201cApps from unknown developers can sometimes be unsafe,\u201d and \u201cThis app tries to spy on your personal data, such as SMS messages, photos, audio recordings, or call history,\u201d or, \u201cThis app is fake.\u201d A handful of recently created predatory loan apps, however, were successfully installed.<\/p>\n Screenshots showing Google Play Protect\u2019s real-time app scanning checking to see if an app is malicious. Image Credits:<\/strong> Google<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n To test out the scope of the Play Protect update, we used a Pixel 7a with a fresh install of Android 14 with the updated Google Play Store featuring real-time code-level scanning.<\/p>\n We began the testing on the Pixel 7a by trying to install various spyware apps that have rebranded or been cloned, or otherwise had code changes that would attempt to evade detection. (We\u2019re not naming or linking to the apps given their malicious nature.) Commercial surveillance apps, like stalkerware or spouseware<\/a>, are typically surreptitiously installed by someone with physical access to a person\u2019s phone, often a spouse or domestic partner. These spyware apps silently and continually upload the contents of the person\u2019s phone, including messages, photos, and real-time location data, and present a major security and privacy risk to the people whose phones are compromised.<\/p>\n Play Protect intervened each time we tried to install spyware and stalkerware. The feature blocked the apps from installing, labeling the apps \u201charmful.\u201d<\/p>\n