What you need to know
- The latest APK teardown of the Google Play Protect app has revealed a temporary pause button that could be introduced soon.
- Users who side-load apps and generally turn off Play Protect to do so can now have a temporary time frame.
- The upcoming feature would enable the Play Protect feature after a day even if users disable it for side loading apps.
Google Play Protect on Android phones plays a significant role in preventing malicious apps from being installed. According to its latest app findings, the tool might be getting a nifty upgrade for additional security.
Folks at Android Authority have managed to perform an APK investigation of the Google Play Store app version 43.4.23-31, which revealed interesting changes coming to the app.
For starters, Play Protect is essential to safe-check Android apps that are being installed on your phones. However, while side-loading apps, it needs to be disabled momentarily as it can obstruct the third-party app installation.
Users can turn on Play Protect through their phone settings after installing the side-loaded apps. However, those who tend to forget might be at risk from malicious apps that can unknowingly get installed and cause problems. To fix this, the latest APK findings reveal that Google might be bringing a temporary pause option for the Play Protect feature on Android phones.
Per the screenshot shared by the publication, the Google Play Protect feature now has a new “Pause” button right next to “Turn off,” which was the only option for users earlier. Once the feature rolls out, it would likely be very handy for users to enable this option, who often install third-party or side-load apps without worrying about malware getting installed later.
“When paused, Play Protect will no longer scan apps available outside of Google Play for malware. Play Protect will automatically turn on again the next day.”
It is still unclear if the timeframe for pausing the feature will increase later, yet having an option is still a plus, to say the least. Since it is found in the testing phase, the rollout might be soon for all Android devices, or the company could entirely skip it, as pausing the feature even for the suggested timeframe might still put the devices at risk from malicious apps during that period.