If you’re not a very tech-savvy person and you suddenly come across a random news item saying that the Android Q update has started rolling out, you’ll probably Google for “how to update my phone” or something to that effect. And if you see an app that promises to update your phone, you might actually download and install it. There are now several fake apps on the Google Play Store promising just that but hopefully, now that you’ve read the headline and the first two sentences, you won’t.
Just to be clear, the Android Q that was recently announced is still in the developer preview stage so us mere mortals should not be looking for apps that will promise to update your phone. Actually, the ones that are promising Android updates are not even with Q yet but have only gone so far as Oreo and Pie even if they’re saying “latest update”.
But either way, you won’t get anything from those apps anyway. Remember that only your OEM or device maker will be able to update your phone to a higher version and never a single app. If you do install those fake apps, at best, you’ll just get some ads and then a notification later on saying the update failed. However, you might also get malware or malicious codes to infect your device.
If you’re wondering why these fake and/or malicious apps are getting past Google, we’re wondering the same thing. Some are using an “unreleased” marker to avoid getting flagged. But even that should be something that Google looks out for. But as we’ve seen the past few years, the Google Play Store can be a cesspool of these kinds of apps. The only solution for now would be to flag them if you see them.
VIA: Android Police
