Over the last year this campaign has reached new heights, with a cull of higher-risk Play Store apps, the promise of live threat detection, and a raft of new features dropping with Android 15. But Google’s latest update is a surprise and will leave users and their phones at serious risk.

Google is working on a feature that will allow users to temporarily pause Play Protect, Android's built-in security scanner. The feature could not only make sideloading easier but also keep your device protected in the long run. It’s unclear when the ability to pause Play Protect will roll out widely, but it should happen soon enough.

Google is testing a new feature that could let Play Store users temporarily pause Play Protect instead of disabling it altogether.