Google Play Protect will use artificial intelligence to warn users about app misbehaviour

Google Play Protect introduces a new Live Threat Detection feature that uses artificial intelligence to analyse the use of sensitive permissions and interactions with other apps and services.

Here's What We Know

Live Threat Detection will be available on devices from several manufacturers that have Google Play Services and it is scheduled to launch later this year. Most Android users use their phones with Google Play Services, which gives them access to Google apps such as the Google Play Store and related Google Play Protect services.

A key AI update to Play Protect was announced at Google I/O 2024 to improve fraud and abuse detection by suspicious apps. Google Play Live Threat Detection is a new feature that utilises AI capabilities to improve device security.

If suspicious app behaviour is detected, Google Play Protect can send the app to Google for further verification. The system can alert users or disable the app if malicious behaviour is confirmed. Previously, Google relied only on cloud-based methods to scan apps that were acting suspiciously. However, some apps exhibited different behaviour when running on a device in real-world conditions than in cloud-based detection or other more restricted environments. This change is aimed at such scenarios, as the AI model on the device will observe the actual performance of the app on the device.

Google says that suspicious behaviour will be detected on the device while maintaining privacy with Private Compute Core. Later this year, the new Live Threat Detection feature will be rolled out to devices from OPPO, HONOR, Lenovo, OnePlus, Nothing, Transsion, Sharp and other manufacturers, as well as Google Pixel devices.

Source: Android Authority