Google Play Protect, the Android built-in malware defense system, has failed the real-world tests of antivirus testing lab AV-TEST after detecting just over two thirds out of more than 20,000 malicious apps it was pitted against.
Google’s Android mobile threat protection, which automatically scans over 100 billion apps every day, was introduced during the Google I/O 2017 in May 2017, with rollout to all Android devices starting 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’s results, Google’s mobile threat protection solution ranked last out of 15 Android security apps tested over a span of six months, between January to June 2021.
While always running and scanning every app installed and launched on the device, the endurance test revealed that this service does not provide particularly good security: every other security app offers better protection than Google Play Protect.