The next version of Android 15 could finally deliver the quarantine of applications embedded in your mobile, like the very useful functionality already present in Windows.
The list of new features included in Android 15 continues to grow. Everything suggests that the next big version of the mobile operating system will be presented in a little less than a month at the Google I/O 2024 conference. For now, only developers and happy owners of Google smartphones Pixel have access to beta versions of the OS.
Among the new features of Android 15, which promise to transform our smartphones into real computers, we find the possibility of including a quarantine system for malicious or buggy applications. This feature is strangely reminiscent of the Windows antivirus system.
Quarantining would reinforce the protection system already in place under Android
Google generally provides robust defense against malware on Android. However, sometimes some malicious applications escape detection. In these cases, Google Play Protect takes heavy action by automatically eliminating them. However, Play Protect is not perfect. Quarantining under Android 15 would act as a sort of way to drive the point home in the event of a failure of Google Play Protect or Android’s “natural” defense.
To date, Android has not had a quarantine feature dedicated to isolating an application from the rest of the system, because the mobile OS was designed to be protected from viruses. Unlike Windows, where apps can interact with the system, on Android they are limited to communicating only with APIs that require specific permissions. Therefore, the quarantine feature on Android should be designed differently from that on Windows.
Quarantining under Android 15, halfway between suspension and deactivation
In Android, quarantining an application modifies its interaction with the system and the user. Although it remains visible in the launcher and settings, the application is subject to restrictions. It cannot display notifications, its windows are hidden, current activities are stopped, and it cannot trigger ringtones. In addition, it becomes inaccessible to other applications and cannot link to them or receive broadcasts. In short, a quarantined application is similar to a disabled application, except that it remains visible in the launcher. This new quarantine condition falls between the “suspended” and “disabled” states already existing on Android.
The APIs for quarantining an application are similar to those used for suspend, with the addition of a specific flag. Initially, during development, system apps could quarantine other apps if they had the SUSPEND_APPS permission. However, this feature has been revised to require the new QUARANTINE_APPS permission, which is reserved for the system verifier application or an application signed with the same certificate as the operating system. Thus, only integrated services like Play Protect will have the ability to quarantine applications. Google is firmly determined to make you prefer Android.
Source : Android Authority
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