With Android 15, it will become much more difficult to steal a mobile phone

The new version of the Android operating system, which will begin arriving on phones this fall, will make it much more difficult to steal a phone. A new system developed by Google will allow the phone to know if it has been snatched from the owner’s hands while it is being used and will automatically lock the screen.

The phone also automatically locks itself if it detects that it is being disconnected from available wireless networks. This is a common method to prevent the rightful owners of the device from remotely wiping and completely disabling device data.

“Theft of your device is an unexpected and stressful event, and it can be difficult to respond quickly. That’s why we created these features that can actively protect the data on the device,” he explains. Suzanne FreyVice President of Security Google.

Although these measures will appear first in a new operating system update, Google plans to roll out some new security options to all phones running Android 10 and later.

DIGITAL SAFE

The new anti-theft measures will be complemented by a new feature in the operating system that allows you to create a secure area in the phone’s memory where you can store particularly important files and applications, such as banking. This area will have an additional security PIN.

Android 15 This will also improve security when using the screen sharing tool, a popular attack vector used to obtain access credentials for various applications. During a screen sharing session, notifications will now be hidden from those viewing the screen remotely and will not be available when entering passwords.

Android phones will also get a security feature that was only available on Pixels until now: the ability to share information from only one app in screen sharing mode.

FRAUD DETECTION

The most advanced and controversial feature, however, is the new AI-powered phone fraud detection service that will be available on phones this year. Google Pixel 8 Pro And Samsung S24.

Using a local model (no information is ever sent to external servers, according to Google), the phone will listen in as you speak to detect patterns and phrases common in known phone scams. If it detects one, it will notify the user with an on-screen warning.

This feature will initially be available exclusively in the US. Google hasn’t indicated when it will expand to other countries. Future phones capable of using a language model Gemini Nanolike the already mentioned Google Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung S24, they may also receive the feature later.