Android: Google introduces new security feature to protect you from threats

Google understands that the Internet is full of potential threats that can harm your device and data. That’s why the company has introduced a new feature that will make your browsing experience safer and smoother. This’Android Safe Browsing now available on all Android devices.

Safe Browsing on Android is a feature that alerts you to malicious or suspicious links you may encounter while browsing the web. It uses the SafetyNet Safe Browsing API. Allows applications to check whether a URL is considered a known threat by Google.

Also read – Gmail harasses users to enable this security feature, is it really necessary?

How does Android Safe Browsing work?

If you try to open a risky link, your device will show a warning notification and you can choose to continue or return. You can enable or disable this feature from your Security & Privacy settings on your Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy phone.

This feature is not entirely new, as it was first spotted in the beta version of Google Play Services in October 2023. But until now it wasn’t widely available.

Safe browsing on Android is not only about protecting you from malware and phishing, but also Save your battery, bandwidth and personal information. SafetyNet Safe Browsing API helps Android devices connect to Google’s threat detection network without consuming too much power or data. It also respects your privacy and does not send any personal or identifiable information to Google.

With the Chrome 122 update, the internet browser also supports Android Safe Browsing. When you visit an unsafe website a red warning will appear and luckily, The feature does not slow down the browser. Essentially, Chrome will start loading the page before it receives a response from the Safe Browsing system.. Trusted sites should load fasterbecause Safe Browsing is no longer an obstacle. When you visit an untrustworthy site, you’ll encounter the famous red warning label, which may only appear after the site has finished loading.

Android Safe Browsing isn’t the only security feature Google has developed for Android users. Another example is Google Play Protection, which scans sideloaded apps for malware before installing them. If an app is detected to be unsafe, Android stops the installation and removes the app from your device.