Your Android Phone Has New Anti-Theft Security Features

As careful as you might be with your smartphone, you’re never 100% impervious to theft. Thieves are smart, and may wait for a vulnerable moment to snatch your phone from your hand, or swipe it while it rests on a table. But how your phone is set up before this theft occurs plays a huge role in the security of your device, and its data, going forward.

Case in point, Google is now rolling out new anti-theft protection features for Android. Specifically, there are three new features here: Theft Detection Lock, Offline Device Lock, and Remote Lock. The company announced these new options back in May, but is finally bringing them to devices to stop thieves from running away with your valuable data.

For example, Theft Detection Lock uses Google’s AI to figure out if someone stole your phone from your hand, and takes off via foot, bike, or car. The AI is trained on “common motion associated with theft,” and if it detects this motion, your phone’s screen will lock.

Offline Device Lock, on the other hand, looks for signs that your phone has been deliberately disconnected from the network for a period of time. Normally, this would give a bad actor more time to break into your phone, since you couldn’t remotely lock it without it being connected to the network. If it suspects it has been stolen and is disconnected, it locks itself up automatically, preventing the bad actors from breaking in.

Finally, there’s Remote Lock. Assuming your phone is still connected to the network, you can remotely lock it with both your phone number and a security challenge from any device via Find My Device. So long as you set this feature up ahead of time, you can hop on any other device, access Find My Device, and ignore prompts to log in: Just punch in your phone number, answer the question, and your phone will lock itself. Of course, you can still log into Find My Device, but this offers users who don’t want to waste time a quick lifeline to preserve their phone and its data.