14 DAY TRIAL // Given the continuous growth of Android malware, running antivirus software on a mobile device becomes a must-have, though keeping smartphones secure is also possible by following simple practices such as installing apps from trusted sources exclusively.
However, for those who want to install third-party antivirus on an Android device, choosing the most effective app is much harder than you think, and this is why researches such as the one conducted by AV-TEST comes in so handy.
The antivirus test organization has conducted a new study to determine the best antivirus apps for Android, and the results aren’t surprising at all.
No less than nine security products received the maximum rating, including apps from Symantec, Tencent, AVG, Trend Micro, and Sophos. All these apps were rewarded with six points for protection and another six for usability, with some also coming with further security features that brought an extra one point.
Google Play Protect offers basic security
Applications from companies that are leading the security software market on the desktop, including Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and McAfee, also performed very well in the latest round of charts, though they didn’t obtain a 100% score in the real-world testing. Kaspersky, for example, achieved 99.6% detection rate, was Bitdefender scored slightly better with 99.7% detection.
Somewhat surprising is that Google Play Protect, which is available on Android in order to secure devices against malware injected in apps downloaded from the Google Play store, scored rather poorly, having obtained only 62.9% detection rate in real-world testing.
Interestingly enough, AV-TEST says that the industry average for detection of the latest Android malware in real-time is 97.8%, while in the case of malware discovered in the last 4 weeks it the detection rate improves to 98.5%.
This means the majority of security solutions can provide advanced protection against known and new threats, despite the average of 8 false warnings during the installation of legitimate software from Google Play.
