Re: Does Android scan every app you install or only apps installed from the Google Play Store?

On 2024-06-03 14:11, Arno Welzel wrote:

Wolf Greenblatt, 2024-06-02 23:13:
 

By default, does Android scan every app you install for malware,
or does Android only scan apps installed from the Google Play Store?

 That also depends on the device as well since some manufactures modify
the official version of Android to their needs and some provide their
own security solutions like Xiaomi.
 However, by default Android will scan every app regardless where it came
from.
 Also see: Settings -> Security & privacy -> App security -> Play protect
and the the "Play Protect settings" you can open with the settings icon
on the top right. In these settings there is also the following option,
which is enabled by default:
 Improve harmful app detection
Send unknown apps to Google for better detection
 And "unknown apps" means apps which you did not install using Google
Play but by using an APK file or alternative sources like F-Droid.

I assume that applications on the google play server are scanned "by the server", in advance, and other applications are scanned later, dunno if locally or after they are uploaded for scan at the server. Oh, rather the later: it says "Send unknown apps to Google for better detection"
--
Cheers, Carlos.