At its annual developers conference, Google announced a number of new security features for Android 15, including a feature called “Theft Detection Lock” that detects when your phone is stolen.
Some of these updates will be available with Android 15 when it launches this fall, though theft detection and a variety of other features will be available on phones with older versions of Android, making them more accessible to a wider range of people.
The theft detection lock detects unusual movements that may indicate someone is snatching your phone from your hand or from the table in front of you.
To prevent thieves from accessing information on your device, the screen will automatically lock.
The system also looks for signs of other suspicious items and can lock the screen as extra protection if someone tries to move the phone out of network range to prevent remote access.
Google is also introducing a new way to remotely lock your phone's screen if the device falls into the wrong hands.
Find My Device lets you remotely lock or wipe a lost or stolen phone and mark it as lost for easy tracking.
Remote Lock lets you lock your phone screen using just your phone number and perform quick security challenges on any device.
All of these features will be available later this year via a Google Play Services update for phones running Android 10 or later.
Android 15 also brings new security features, including Private Spaces, which lets you put apps and information in a separate hidden area of your phone that can be locked with a unique PIN.
Google has also added protection against thieves trying to factory reset the phone by requesting the owner's login details the next time the device is set up.
Disabling Find My Device or extending screen timeout now requires a PIN, password, or biometric authentication, adding an extra layer of security and preventing the device from being unlocked or untraceable online.
While the new and improved authentication requires biometric data to access your Google Account and change important device settings from untrusted locations, such as: for example, changing your PIN, disabling anti-theft protection, or accessing keys.