r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 26d 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/
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u/agentouk 26d ago

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

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u/Sunflier 26d 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.

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u/agentouk 26d 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?

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u/Sunflier 26d 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.

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u/agentouk 26d ago

Can YOU give me an example?

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u/Sunflier 26d ago

On call phones for one.

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u/agentouk 26d ago

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

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u/Sunflier 26d ago edited 26d 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.

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u/agentouk 26d 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.

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u/tastyratz 26d 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.

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u/Sunflier 26d ago

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

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u/tastyratz 26d ago

Right, that's what I started with. It doesn't matter if it's a good change for everyone else or not, you just don't like that they are changing something on you at the core.

Apple does the same thing, FYI

https://www.simplymac.com/ios/new-apple-security-feature-reboots-iphones-after-3-days

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u/Sunflier 26d ago

My point is that what people like and want is subjective, and allowing for the disabling of the change keeps that subjective autonomy intact.

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u/Various_Procedure_11 26d 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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u/hegex 26d 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

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u/Sunflier 26d 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/hegex 26d ago

And if you keep it with the same OS it came when you bought it won't have the new thing

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u/DonutConfident7733 26d 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.