AV-Comparatives’ 2019 test of Android antivirus products showed that the malware protection of almost 40% of the tested Android AV apps are inappropriate.

AV-Comparatives tested the effectiveness of 250 antimalware security apps by various different developers from the Google Play Store.

According to the results, 80 apps detected over 30% of malicious apps, and had zero false alarms.

But the antimalware apps from 138 vendors detected less than 30% of the Android malware samples, or had a relatively high false alarm rate on popular clean files from the Google Play Store

AV-Comparatives consider sthose apps to be risky, ineffective or unreliable.

A number of the above apps have in the meantime already been detected either as Trojans, dubious/fake AVs, or at least as “potentially unwanted applications” (PUA) by several reputable mobile security apps. It is to be expected that Google will remove most of them from the Google Play Store in the coming months.

The apps that passed the test came from familiar security brands, with big names like AVG, Kaspersky, McAfee and Symantec catching everything.

Using user ratings is clearly not effective when it comes to choosing an Android security app. The majority of users will give their rating based solely on the user experience, without having any idea as to whether the app offers effective protection. Similarly, the number of downloads can only be a very rough guide; a successful scam app may be downloaded many times before it is found to be a scam.

As a result, it is recommended using only apps of well-known, verified and reputable vendors.