With reports about compromised or fake apps in the Google Play Store coming out every month or so, owning an Android device can be down right stressful.  While there are things you can look for to reduce the risk of downloading a nasty app, it isn’t always easy to identify them.

To help keep your Android device safe, Google Play Protect is installed on it at the factory.  However researchers have found out what millions of Android users have known for years, Google Play Protect does a terrible job.  Even with the tool pre-installed, users everywhere are still experiencing malware infections on a large scale.

So what is a user to do?  The good news is there are many excellent apps out there designed to protect your Android device from malware. Even better, many of them are free.  The more recognizable names are McAfee, AVG, Avast and Norton. However some lesser known products like Anity, Cheetah and F-secure are also excellent.  All of them out perform Google Play Protect.

If you want to keep your Android device secure, before you download an app:

• Only download from the Google Play Store (it’s still safer than the wild web)
• Check its reviews
• Check the number of times it has been downloaded
• Check to see what kind of access to your data and your device it wants
• Download an anti-malware app before you download anything else