Google Play Store’s integrated Play Protect service has become quite strong in protecting your Android phone from malicious apps and services. Now, many users are reporting the addition of another layer of security that makes sideloading apps a little more troublesome, but that’s a good thing.
Android expert Mishaal Rahman took to X (formerly Twitter) earlier this week to let us know that Google Play Protect now requires you to use your biometrics when sideloading an unsafe APK file. While we already got to see “Unsafe app blocked” In the first window, tapping More Details -> Install Anyway will bypass the warning immediately.
Now, on clicking install anyway, a “Install unsafe app?” A confirmation window pops up that requires you to use your fingerprint or enter your PIN. but there is a problem.
I tried to introduce security measures by installing almost every glitchy app I knew about. But, according to my vain thinking, this would not be a trigger for me. However, I may trigger this window when trying to install very old versions of apps from third-party app stores or apps.
As Mishaal showed in his X post, when I tried to install the 2018 version of F-Droid, Google Play Protect gave me a warning saying, “This app was built for an older version of Android and does not include the latest privacy protections. Installing this app may put your device at risk.
However, it turns out that this isn’t a new feature at all, having been around for about two months at this point. Either way, it’s still a great feature to prevent users from installing apps that don’t meet Google Play Protect’s current privacy protection criteria.
Most importantly, if someone else has your Android phone even for a moment, they can’t do anything wrong with it. However, this gatekeeping will be made meaningful only if it is triggered for each such sideload. Additionally, Google may also give users the option to control whether they want this popup to appear for each app install. This way it makes more sense to me.
What do you think about Google Play Protect’s latest security measure? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
