Google Play Protect, Android's built-in malware defense system, failed real-world tests by antivirus testing lab AV-TEST, detecting just over two-thirds of more than 20,000 malicious apps.
See also: Hackers lure Android users with fake antivirus and infect them with malware
Google's Android Mobile Threat Protection, which automatically scans over 100 billion apps every day, was unveiled during Google I/O 2017 in May 2017, with rollout to all Android devices beginning in July 2017.
Since then, Google Play Protect has been deployed to billions of devices and is now the built-in malware protection on over 2.5 billion active Android devices.
According to AV-TEST results, Google's mobile threat protection solution ranked last out of 15 Android security apps tested over a six-month period, between January and June 2021.
See also: What is the best antivirus for your Android smartphone?
While it always ran and scanned every app installed on the device, “the stress test revealed that this service does not provide particularly good security: every other security app offers better protection than Google Play Protect.”
During this 5-month stress test, Google Play Protect detected just over two-thirds of the nearly 20,000 infected apps that the testing lab used as part of three rounds of testing.
Each of these testing rounds "placed" the security applications on over 3,000 malware samples (24 hours ago) and a reference set of over 3,000 other samples up to a month old.
Of all the mobile security apps tested, Bitdefender, G DATA, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, and Trend Micro were the ones that achieved the perfect 100% detection rate.
Google Play Protect also mistakenly identified 70 apps as potentially malicious out of nearly 10,000 harmless apps installed by AV-TEST from the Play Store and third-party Android app stores.
See also: Experts warn of vulnerabilities in popular antivirus software
Since Android's built-in malware protection solution failed to detect over a third of the 20,000 malware samples thrown at it during testing, AV-TEST advises users to use a second security app to block malware from getting past Play Protect's defenses.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
