So many mobile phones have been stolen in Mexico that Google has made a radical decision regarding Android: copy Apple

The safety of cell phones in Mexico has long been in question. Theory based on Almost 100 million phones stolen according to several studies. It doesn’t matter if they are iPhone devices or Android devices. That’s why anti-theft features like the one Apple rolled out this year or the one Google added more recently are gaining more and more interest.

Finally One of the best features of Android came from Mexico and in some ways was already in iOS.. This is a theft detection measure that will prevent thieves from accessing our content or using a phone sold on the second-hand market. In the long run, they expect that stealing a cell phone will not bring any benefit to the thief.

What does Apple offer to protect your iPhone from theft?

There are several systems for locking an iPhone if it is stolen. The best known is the one that allows find and block your device using the Find My iPhone app, available on other Apple devices and online.

What the apple company presented this year is preventive blocking of some functions. This feature has its origins in the widespread practice of some thieves who, using social engineering tactics, were able to discover the security code of a victim’s iPhone, steal it, and instantly gain access to functions such as signing out of Apple ID and changing the device’s password. .

Having thus unlinked the terminal from the victim’s account, the victim was unable to block it. This is why Apple has implemented the possibility that changing these system settings will require Face ID recognition and, ultimately, an account password that only the victim should know. This doesn’t prevent theft per se, but helps the victim block access to their data and the device itselfleaving the terminal virtually unusable.

There are also other features such as what we call “iPhone self-destruct mode” and it simply involves activating a setting in the Face ID configuration so that if it doesn’t recognize our face and code after ten attempts, the iPhone will be fully restored. and also cannot be configured as new.

Android not only copies it, but also improves it

Android 15 is being rolled out these weeks with many new features, among which an anti-theft feature, very similar to the one Apple is implementing, was already discovered a few months ago. In this situation, you can resort to the classic “Android copies iOS”, although there are also examples of the opposite. However, as long as it is for the greater good, all inspiration between platforms is welcome.

The fact is that the Android 15 presented should be rolled out country by country, and although in territories such as Spain it was already available in beta versions, it has not yet reached Mexico with the aforementioned system update. Yes it is slightly different function than iOS.

In addition to creating obstacles for restoring a mobile phone and changing accounts, as happens in iOS, Android also adds automatic theft detection. That is, if it detects unusual patterns, such as moving away from usual places, trying to unlock the device using the wrong code, and the like, it will automatically be blocked. And in case of false positives, unlocking it will be as easy as entering the correct code and passwords.

Android still has to take the next step that Apple has already taken

As we said earlier, these new theft detection systems are not enough to prevent theft. We can imagine a meticulous system that would detect a stranger’s hand and release an electric shock that would prevent the thief from taking it. But at the end of the day, it’s more science fiction than reality. In fact, it wouldn’t be very convenient.

What they achieve, and this is important, is that the thief does not have access to our data and cannot profit from the theftregardless of whether it sells inexpensively or is suitable for use as a primary phone. This is why Apple keeps adding restrictions such as part locking, which means that thanks to iOS 18, parts such as the screen or battery cannot be replaced with others that are not original or authorized, which blocks the use of the mobile phone if detected and thereby preventing the black market for stolen iPhones.

Unlike the absurd rivalry that sometimes arises between Apple and Android users, the latter are jealous of this feature in the same way many of us are jealous of the sophisticated theft detection methods that Google’s platform now adds. For this reason, we applaud more than ever the fact that some companies focus on others when the goal is so positive. Because in the end, although all this does not prevent theft, invites thieves to think about the fact that stealing mobile phones is becoming more and more absurd.

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