The sheer number of Android apps available in Google's Play Store is vast. Add to this many other sources with apps for Android. Unfortunately, there are more and more apps where a Trojan, a virus or something else could be lurking inside them. With Play Protect, Google promises protection against infected programs. That's why the tool runs automatically on every newer Android system, scanning available apps. The current test indicates, however, that Android users should not rely solely on Play Protect. Google's scan tool only identifies just over one-third of the nearly 6,700 malware samples in the test. Over 4,000 simply sneak through. For comparison: the poorest test result of the AVG security app has a detection rate of 98.9 percent. That is why it really can be worthwhile to install one of the other apps tested here.

A brief note: The current app test only evaluates Android security apps for consumers. The lab will test security apps for corporate users during the period from March to April 2020 and will release the result shortly thereafter.

All apps provide better protection than Google Play Protect

The lab at AV-TEST put all security apps for Android through the same three-part test. During the test for protection, each security app was required to identify the roughly 6,700 malware apps. In terms of performance, the additional processor and battery load is determined by the apps. With respect to usability, tests are conducted to see how the security apps treat normal, innocuous apps. Because false alarms are annoying to users.

In all test categories, the lab evaluates the apps, awarding up to 6 points in the three categories. In this test, the best result of 18 points was achieved by the security apps from Avira, Bitdefender, G Data, Kaspersky, NortonLifeLock, SK Telecom and Trend Micro. Following very close behind is the app from securiON at 17.5 points. An additional 8 apps achieved 17 and 16 points respectively in the test. Last place finisher is Google Play Protect with a total of only 6 points. That is far too little for the AV-TEST certificate. All the other apps examined earn enough points for the certificate, documenting the proven security.