Infected and scoundrel Apps are a true yet most unfortunate reality for Android. No one wants to get stuck in them. Yet they make their way to pop up every now and then on your mobile screen. It can be quite a headache to deal with these scam apps that catch you unwillingly. Although, not by any means these apps are restricted to Android only. A bunch of these find their place on Google's mobile operating system too. But it appears as Android is one who has been suffering from them the most, as security researchers on Android report malware quite often.
Although it's a user's own duty to take care of its security by inspecting permissions carefully and not installing sketchy apps. However, to fight back against these malicious apps, Android 7.1 Nougat has been recently equipped with a new feature by Google, which will allow Nougat users to get them out of these apps whenever they get stuck in them. XDA Developers take a dig into this new Android feature.
How this feature works
This new feature reacts when you press the back button more than a couple of times in a certain amount of time, thus triggering it as a 'Panic Situation'. When the user presses the back button four times, 0.3 seconds per tap. This is considered as a grace period during which it checks for further key presses by the user.
Then it permits the operating system to close the app and send the user back to the home screen. This feature is programmed considering how rogue apps operate and trap the user from going back out of them. After that, the malicious app can be easily uninstalled hence making the escape easy for the user.
It is yet unknown why Google isn't advertising this new feature but it can prove very useful for someone who downloads a malicious app accidentally.
However, this escaping feature is only available on Android 7.1, so the majority of people won't be able to make use of it. Google should make efforts to make it much more global so that all Android users can benefit from this useful feature. Because of its usefulness, it will also get target by hackers so that they can exploit it and keep it from working so users remain stuck in rogue apps and probably that could be the reason why Google is hesitant to advertise this new feature. Although, it's a minor feature, being an Android user, it's really nice and encouraging to see how much Google cares about Android users and making efforts to make them safe and secure.
