Android will be able to detect if your phone has been stolen

Google is advertising a host of new security features by releasing its second Android 15 beta, including a feature that can detect the moment your phone is stolen from your hands. Some of these updates will be included in Android 15 when it arrives this fall, but theft detection and a host of other features will also be available for phones with much older OS versions – bringing them to many more people.

The Theft Detection Lock works by recognizing unusual movements that would indicate someone has snatched your phone from your hand or off a table in front of you. To prevent a thief from accessing the information on your device, the screen is automatically locked. The system also looks for other signs that indicate crime and will be able to lock the screen for protection if someone tries to remove it from the network to prevent remote access.

Google is also introducing a new way to lock your phone’s screen remotely if it falls into the wrong hands. When visiting android.com/lock, you can enter your phone number and respond to a security challenge to lock your device – a potentially useful tool if all you have access to is a friend’s phone at the moment. All of these features will arrive later this year via a Google Play Services update for phones running Android 10 or later.

Android 15 also introduces new security features, including “private spaces,” which let you place apps and information in a separate, hidden area of ​​your phone that can be locked with a unique PIN. Google is also adding protections for when a phone is forced to restart, requiring the owner’s credentials the next time it’s set up.

Android’s Play Protect also gets an update designed to protect users from bad actors – it will analyze how apps use sensitive permissions on your phone to watch for signs of phishing and fraud. Potentially malicious apps are sent to Google for further analysis.

As was the case last year, the latest version of Google’s operating system played an increasingly smaller role in the company’s Day One I/O keynote. We’ll hear more about the new features in Android 15 in the coming months while it’s in beta, but in the meantime, we love seeing so many new features coming to many Android phones – not just those capable of running the latest version of the OS.