How to Identify Malicious Applications in Google Play

Google announced that it was deleting a large number of malicious applications on the Google Play store in 2017, but Google is still far from providing a good defense against malware.

Many users on the Google Play Store are suffering from the question of finding the right app, as even the moment can falsify positive evaluations, as copies of applications that are actually good can be made.

Google continues to rely on certain forms to ensure the quality of applications within its store, where algorithms analyze new applications and updates to known software instructions or behavior patterns, and ensures that the system that 99 percent of all harmful applications do not reach users through the store.

Algorithms have become more intelligent thanks to automated learning. These algorithms are able to detect phantom identities, inappropriate content, and new types of malware.



How to Identify Malicious Applications in Google Play
Manual flashlight applications
Flashlight applications take advantage of users' negligence. Users are usually notified about application permissions, but new applications from the manual flash require permissions to send SMS messages. But what many users may know is that flashlight applications only require permission to access the camera , This request is somewhat logical, because the LED light is connected to the camera and controlled by requesting permission to access the camera.

Phone optimization applications
There are many useless applications on the Google Play store, to name but a few, battery optimization applications, where nothing can be offered to the user which is useless, because their work is in their own capsule and should not interfere with the system in any way.

The poor performance of the battery is often due to one fact: a particular application consumes a lot of energy, and all you have to do is identify the application and uninstall it, and you may find a more economical alternative, which leads us to the next problem.

Copy counterfeit applications
When you search for popular games within the Google Play Store, you'll learn about malware by:

- You can not hide apps with ads, or hide purchases in the app.
- It rarely explains why the application requires certain permissions.
- You never know whether the application is in one-off or frequent purchases, as you do not know what these purchases will provide you.
Most games are good at playing for minutes or hours, then these games require you to make the purchase in cash, and may consume a lot of money for no reason.

What makes the application good?
A good app will give you a detailed explanation of your in-app purchases, where you can see if the app has purchases inside it before you upload it to your Android phone, and you can see the price of the app through the explanation provided.

There are problems with all permissions in applications as well as ads, where the developer should justify the permissions required by the application and explain them in accordance with the functionality it provides.

The list of things to consider is no longer short in recent years. App creators have become smarter to make money, and the Google Anti-Malware Team has evolved.

The user must be careful when selecting the applications that he wants to upload to his smartphone.