Google says 80 percent of Android apps encrypt data traffic

About eighty percent of Android apps currently use encryption by default when sending and receiving data, according to Google. A year ago it was barely 25 percent.

To secure the data traffic of an Android device, developers can provide their apps with support for transport layer security. According to Google, about eighty percent of Android apps currently use this option. This is a significant increase: a year ago, only a quarter of network traffic was secured with encryption, and until May 2018, apps did not even encrypt at all.

For apps specifically made for Android 9 or 10, the score is even higher, with ninety percent apps encrypting network traffic by default. According to Google, that percentage will continue to rise. Since November 1, all new apps and app updates must be at least suitable for Android 9. Earlier, Google already decided that apps for Android 9 should be protected by TLS by default.

New in Android 10 is the support of tls 1.3. This technology would enable secure connections that are up to 40 percent faster than with tls 1.2.