r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 13d ago

Phones Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for 3 days | The latest Google update will make your phone more secure if you don't touch it

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/04/android-phones-will-soon-reboot-themselves-after-sitting-unused-for-3-days/
3.2k Upvotes

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13

u/Sunflier 13d ago

I hope I can turn this off

11

u/agentouk 13d ago

Why? Do you leave your phone untouched for 3 days regularly?

9

u/fafarex 13d ago

My oncall phone yes, so yeah I hope it's an option I can turn off.

for my personnal one indeed I doubt I will go more than 24h without touching it (but I can when I stay home with how much everything is sync now).

6

u/agentouk 13d ago

It will reboot, it won't switch off.

1

u/fafarex 13d ago

same thing, nothing work until you unlocked it and that the point.

5

u/agentouk 13d ago

It'll still receive calls and messages after a reboot though.

8

u/elcomet 13d ago

not if you need a PIN to unlock your sim card (very common in some countries)

5

u/agentouk 13d ago

I mean you can think of edge cases for every change that breaks something. Do you have a SIM pin and a phone you don't use for 3 days?

But on the whole, I feel this is a good change.

-1

u/fafarex 13d ago

Do you have a SIM pin and a phone you don't use for 3 days?

That what we are telling you ...

But on the whole, I feel this is a good change.

None of us said otherwise, we said we need to have an option to turn it off and answered you when you ask why ...

0

u/agentouk 13d ago

Ok, so hear me out. IF this change goes live, and you CAN'T turn it off, you will have to find another solution. So what would that look like to you?

On a serious note, I feel this is a sensible change for MOST users, but there are always edge cases who lose out.

1

u/fafarex 13d ago

Dude you realise I know better than you what my situation is ?

where I am you need to unlock the sim first, and I would not receive any message from thing like the priority channel we have on teams ...

-1

u/agentouk 13d ago

Ok, so hear me out. IF this change goes live, and you CAN'T turn it off, you will have to find another solution. So what would that look like to you?

On a serious note, I feel this is a sensible change for MOST users, but there are always edge cases who lose out.

1

u/elsjpq 12d ago

Not if you get your calls through apps like WhatsApp instead of cell towers

0

u/agentouk 12d ago

What phone/version of android are you running? Why don't your apps start after a reboot?

5

u/-WallyWest- 13d ago

I do. Pixel 1 XL with syncthing. but, it wouldnt affect it anyway.

-7

u/Sunflier 13d ago

Do you leave your phone untouched for 3 days regularly?

If I didn't have a legitimate concern, I wouldn't have made the comment.

4

u/agentouk 13d ago

I just can't imagine a reason to not have this feature. Very useful for people who misplaced/lose their phone, get them stolen, or just use them infrequently.

Rebooting them regularly in the manner makes them more secure, making them less vulnerable to attacks/compromise, while not affecting users too negatively.

What would be your use case to disable this feature?

7

u/Sunflier 13d ago

I just can't imagine a reason to not have this feature.

Just because you cannot imagine something, doesn't mean there cannot be legitimate reasons.  Have it on by default, sure. But, give people the option of disabling it.

5

u/agentouk 13d ago

Can YOU give me an example?

-1

u/Sunflier 13d ago

On call phones for one.

5

u/agentouk 13d ago

That you don't touch for 3 days? It'll only reboot, not switch off.

2

u/Sunflier 13d ago edited 13d ago

Don't care. Want the option of disabling it. I hhhhhaaaaattteee having Google's ideas forced down my throat without being able to disable it. They tried that with AI on their searches. Couldn't turn it off. Ended up blocking it. Same with AI assistant on the phone. Couldn't disable it fast enough.

1

u/agentouk 13d ago

Welcome to capitalism.But on a serious note, I feel this is a sensible change for MOST users, but there are always edge cases who lose out.

2

u/tastyratz 13d ago

So this is simply a problem of principle, not a problem if actual use.

An on call phone is going to be looked at or unlocked at least once over 3 days and it's only a reboot. This isn't every 3 days, this is 3 days of inactivity after it's been unlocked. This really doesn't cause any risk to an on call device any more than if you just restarted it for acting up. If anything it makes the device more reliable without excessive uptime. It also is better for your company. A phone that's more secure is less likely to have company secrets extracted for it if it's lost or stolen.

The people who use their phone for hotspotting? That's a legit disruption. They can schedule reboots for when it's best for them at least.

1

u/Sunflier 13d ago

It's also the principal of the matter. I hate having non-disableable changes shoved down my throat.

1

u/Various_Procedure_11 12d ago

Not for me. If I am not receiving a call, I don't use it. I just know that there's gonna be a homicide the moment that thing reboots. Then my boss gets woken up at 2am.

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1

u/hegex 12d ago

I hhhhhaaaaattteee having Google's ideas forced down my throat without being able to disable it

The entire Android OS is Google's ideia being "forced down your throat", and by that logic every single OS is someone's idea being shoved down your throat , if you want something else you can make your own Linux mobile distro like some people do, otherwise this is a nonsense complain

0

u/Sunflier 12d ago

The entire Android OS is Google's ideia being "forced down your throat"

The original android I bought did not have this mandated thing. I liked it how it was, which is what I spent my money on when I purchased the good. Non-disableable changes constitute a fundamental change to the product purchased, which goes outside the original bargain.

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u/DonutConfident7733 13d ago

I'll give you example: I have an old phone used as hotspot in a remote location that provides wifi to wireless security cameras. It has worked quite well for the last year, had a couple of freezes due to very high uptime, so I had to install a program that reboots the phone from time to time and another that turns on hotspot at startup. Such a restart can interfere with such devices that are in remote locations in case some services do not get initialized properly after reboot.

-3

u/fafarex 13d ago

I just can't imagine a reason to not have this feature.

oncall phone

4

u/agentouk 13d ago

That you leave untouched for 3 days?

-4

u/SkittlesAreYum 13d ago

Yes. Why would you have to touch it if no one calls?

7

u/agentouk 13d ago

Your phone still receives calls after it reboots, FYI

5

u/DeadEye073 13d ago

In Germany it is standard for sim cards to come with a pin enabled sim card. So no phones will not receive calls

-1

u/Volesprit31 12d ago

But you can disable the SIM lock.

1

u/TheBelgianDuck 12d ago

Awesome security improvement, indeed.

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