Our phones are susceptible to theft at any time, especially in crowded places, where a skilled thief can snatch your phone and run away at lightning speed, which is definitely a cause for concern. The worst-case scenario is if your phone is unlocked, making your sensitive information – such as banking details, personal photos, conversations, and more – material for blackmail. In such cases, you may find yourself wishing for the battery to run out or the lock screen to appear. Fortunately, phone companies have started addressing this issue by implementing additional measures to thwart rampant phone theft and increase user data protection. Apple introduced the “Lost Mode” feature on iPhone and we have reviewed how to activate it. Google also introduced new security features to protect millions of Android phones from theft, and here is how to activate them.
Protection from theft for Android
Last May, Google announced through an official blog post a set of security features that will support billions of Android phones to reduce the chances of phone theft and make the possibility of data acquisition by the thief almost nonexistent. The features highlighted by Google will work to protect your phone before, during, and after theft, and while most of them only work on the latest versions of Android (starting from Android 15), millions of Android phones running on Android 10 and above have recently started receiving these features as the company began rolling them out globally through Google Play services updates that install silently on devices.
Activating Theft Protection
One of the primary features, and perhaps the most important of all, is “Theft Protection.” This feature is powered by artificial intelligence and works by tracking measurements from the phone’s internal sensors, such as the accelerometer and gyroscope, using this information to take quick action when the phone is stolen. This action is to lock the phone or activate the lock screen, preventing it from being restarted unless the PIN code or pre-registered biometric measurements on the phone, such as the fingerprint or face recognition, are entered. This will be useful in preventing the thief from accessing your data, especially if the intention of the theft was to obtain the data while you are on a call or using the phone in general to avoid dealing with the security measures.
Even if the thief tries to factory reset the device to erase the protection and bypass the login process into the device through biometrics, this feature will pose another obstacle due to the additional protection on the “Factory Reset” option, allowing the thief to complete the reset operation, but it will prevent them from setting up the phone or turning it back on unless they can enter the login details to the Google account associated with the device. This makes the stolen phone unusable or unsellable, reducing the motivation for phone theft.
On Samsung phones, you can quickly activate this feature by opening the “Settings” app and navigating to the “Security and Privacy” section, then going to the “More Security Settings” page where you will find the “Theft Protection” option. Click on it. As for all other Android phones, there is a unified way to access the feature by opening the “Settings” app and going to the “Google” page, then heading to the “All Services” section and scrolling down until you find the feature under the “Personal and Device Safety” subsection.
On this page, you can activate the “Theft Detection Lock” option, which, as we mentioned, will immediately enable the lock screen when the phone is stolen to prevent anyone from accessing your personal data, using the motion sensors in your device and Wi-Fi connections and smart devices to monitor any attempts by the thief to take your device suddenly and run away.
You can also activate the “Offline Device Lock” feature, which will also activate the lock screen even if the thief removes the SIM card or activates airplane mode or tries to isolate your phone from the networks for a long period in general, as artificial intelligence will detect this activity and immediately shut down the phone screen.
Read also: How to prevent phone lock and restart for theft protection
Activating Remote Lock Feature
The second feature is called “Remote Lock,” which provides a lifeline if your phone has already disappeared, and you are concerned that the Theft Detection Lock feature may not have been able to detect the theft attempt to automatically lock the phone. It allows you to remotely lock your stolen phone using any other device to buy some time to take further measures to recover your account details and access the remote control options provided by the “Find My Device” feature, including sending a factory reset command.
The feature can be activated from the same “Theft Protection” page. When scrolling down, you will find the “Remote Lock” option. Click on it and start activating “Use Remote Lock.” Once done, you will notice that the feature retains your phone number associated with the SIM card in the device as a means to send a remote lock screen activation command as we explain below.
Once your Android phone is stolen while the “Remote Lock” feature is activated, all you have to do is ask someone with an internet-connected phone to open a browser and go to a easily saved link like Android.com/lock and here you will not need to log into your Google account, just enter the mobile number associated with the phone and press the “Lock Device” button to immediately activate the lock screen and display a message indicating that the theft protection feature is activated. This ensures that the thief does not attempt to access your photos, conversations, and sensitive data in general.
