With all the news of malware getting into the Google Play Store masquerading as legit apps, Android’s primary app market needs a boost in security so that consumers can feel safe as they download their apps. At Google I/O 2017, the mothership announced Google Play Protect, a new suite of services that will help secure your Android device with Google Play Services installed.
Leveraging heavily on machine learning that scans almost 50 billion apps a day, Google Play Protect is a solution that can identify harmful apps and keeps you from installing them. The beauty of this is that it is embedded into Google Play, so you don’t have to add or install anything to use this. It is always scanning, always updating, and is very visible when you use the Play Store (see image below).
And when you lose your device, Google has baked in the “Find my Device” feature, which people used to have a hard time finding when they lose their Android device. It’s not a novel concept, as Apple devices already have this. But now you can pinpoint, ring, lock down or wipe your device, including Android Wear smartwatches, without having to
use third-party software to track down the phone you lost.
In truth, this system has always been available with Google Play – the announcement at I/O 2017 was an attempt to make this feature more visible, give users a little bit more confidence in using Google Play Services. Security is a big issue in Android, and this goes a long way to keep users secure in their usage of Google’s platform.
SOURCE: Google
