Why does Google Play Protect stop me from sideloading apks (from, say, Obtainium) while almost regularly I read reports about malicious apps being available in Google Playstore itself ? Why do they allow those ?
Probably just a rant out of frustration. I ignore those alerts if I am confident about the apk I’m sideloading, lol.
I too use droidify and unobtainium and have never received such pop-ups. I guess if it warns you there’s the possibility the app is malicious or requests sensitive permissions.
If you don’t like it, turn it off.
This would be a valid complaint if it was forced on you, but it isn’t. You can both ignore the warnings and disable the feature entirely.
As to why it does that, it’s using heuristics based on the APIs the app calls and maybe a bit about how it calls them. If there are enough patterns similar to malicious apps, you get a warning.
It will turn itself on, pop up constantly with a dialog that has accept and cancel buttons switched. It is forced.
I have Play Protect turned on, and I have no problem installing apps from Droid-ify or Obtanium.
Is it better to try and fail 10% of the time, or to not try at all and fail 100% of the time?
Play protect is an extremely useful feature that deters uneducated people from installing APKs because yes, the vast majority of times for normal folk, they are malware ridden. Google does try to prevent malware from getting on the play store, and they actually do a phenomenal job, but in the end, it’s always going to be a cat and mouse game, and shits gonna slip through. It’s still better then not trying at all.
