- Android 15 could introduce a new way for the system to protect users from misbehaving apps: by quarantining them.
- Android is already a very secure operating system, but sometimes misbehaving apps slip through the cracks.
- For now, misbehaving apps are often uninstalled by Google Play Protect.
The Android operating system offers robust protection against malicious and misbehaving apps. Even so, bad apps will sometimes slip through the cracks, in which case Google Play Protect might step in and automatically remove them. Like any advanced anti-malware software, Play Protect won’t be 100% accurate in its detections, which is why it usually errs on the side of caution and asks the user if they want to remove a potentially harmful app. With the upcoming Android 15 update, the system may add a new way for services like Play Protect to protect users from misbehaving apps: by quarantining them.
If you’ve ever dealt with anti-virus software on desktop operating systems like Windows, then you may be familiar with the concept of quarantining software. When anti-virus software quarantines a file, it’s because it suspects it’s malicious but is either unable to delete it or leaves the decision to the user because it’s unsure if the file is actually malicious. Quarantined files are isolated from the rest of the system so they can’t be executed, ensuring that whatever malicious software is potentially in them can’t do any dirty work.