Google is going an extra step to help make sure all of your Android apps are behaving exactly as they’re supposed to. The company announced on Thursday that it would be expanding its Verify apps security system to routinely run scans of apps on your device to make sure that they aren’t doing anything suspicious or malicious.
Previously Verify would only scan apps for malware while you were downloading them but that did little to stop those apps from behaving badly after they were installed. For instance, we recently read about some legitimate apps found on the Google Play store that were being covertly used to mine Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies without users’ knowledge. The hope now is that Verify apps will be able to detect this unauthorized behavior and put a stop to it, thus saving your phone’s memory and battery life.
Google emphasizes that the risk of getting malware on your Android phone is very small but it says that it’s “committed to making sure that the best available security protections are available to all Android users.” The new feature will be available on all phones with Android 2.3 Gingerbread or higher.
