At Google I/O 2017 earlier this year, the search giant announced its Google Play Protect feature that essentially notifies users when a particular app starts behaving abnormally or is considered unsafe. Google has now reportedly started rolling out this feature to Android devices running Google Mobile Services 11 or later.
Engadget has been told by the California-based company that the Google Play Protect feature has started rolling out and allows users to see that their apps have been scanned to ensure that they are safe. You will be able to see this feature inside the Google section of the security settings. While the feature will itself notify you about the unsafe apps, you can at least check for its availability by heading to this section.
How to check if you’ve received Google Play Protect? It should be listed under Settings -> Google on you Android device.
However, the report adds that the Play Protect card in the Play Store app will take longer to show up for users as it started rolling out a little later. Notably, the Google Play Protect feature automatically scans the apps in the background and but users can also manually ask the feature to start looking for abnormal app behaviour.
Considering that Android has long been plagued with security holes that have allowed malware to even get remote access to the devices, among other things, it is definitely a welcome move that Google has now taken matters in its own hands. This new security feature will inform users about the unsafe apps and will prevent them from installing malicious applications that can potentially compromise their security.