Android phones are getting a major upgrade from Google this month that gives them iPhone-like security in case your phone is stolen or lost. How many times have you worried about your phone data when something calamitous happens and you fear the thieves can get uncontrolled access to your data, bank account and more? Google is trying to fix these issues with a simple auto-restart update that is activated if your phone has not been unlocked for over three days. 

Android Anti-Theft Update: How It Works 

When a phone is stolen, thieves try to shut down or reboot the device to stop people from tracking the device. However, most people these days setup fingerprint IDs for biometric security which can be hard to breach. 

And in such cases, if Google notices that a phone has been locked for 3 days, the auto-restart feature will get to work. These changes should work across Android phones because Google is bringing them via an update for Google Play services version. 

Once the device restarts after 3 days or 72 hours of being consecutively locked, the Android phone and all the data on the device will be protected with encryption and you can’t try to unlock it using finger or face ID. 

The new feature is identical to the iOS 18.1 update that brought the Inactivity Reboot tool for iPhone users last year which also reboots under the same conditions to protect your data and device. 

While the feature is useful and most people would like to keep it enabled, Google says it is optional and if you don’t want the auto-restart tool to work, you can disable it from settings manually. It is likely that Google will extend support for this feature to Android tablets at a later date.