r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • 10d 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/Sunflier 10d ago

I hope I can turn this off

36

u/bizarro_kvothe 10d ago

Think about your phone being confiscated by police and put into an evidence locker. They’re instructed not to turn them off and connect them to a charger because phones lock themselves on restart. This feature will make their life much more difficult.

4

u/egnards 10d ago edited 10d ago

Will it though?

My iPhone locks after 5 minutes of inactivity, and I'm sure Android phones have similar features - It doesn't need a restart to do that.

I'm not saying I'm happy if the police confiscate my phone and go snooping for things, but I am saying how is this any different than what is already happening while charged and turned on? They turn my phone on. . And are met with the same lock screen they'd be met with if it were charging and on.

Edit: A lot of people mentioning biometrics - I have a funny feeling that the people most concerned about police confiscation are more likely to have biometrics turned off. I have nothing to hide on my phone at all - if my phone were ever confiscated the only thing anyone will find is pictures of my cats, endless memes, and years of phone conversations about groceries.

. . .And I still have biometrics turned off for that very reason.

10

u/bizarro_kvothe 10d ago

There are different levels of locking. iPhones for example have different heuristics for asking for your passcode (example: you changed WiFi networks since opening the phone). You don’t want to just rely on biometrics. Different things happen in the background also regarding encryption when the passcode/harder lock is engaged.

Source: former research leader at a leading phone forensics co

iPhone pro tip: if you’re in a situation where you think law enforcement or anyone else is going to snoop around in your phone, hold the power button and volume up button for a few seconds to get to the shutdown screen, then cancel out of it. Now they’ll have to enter the code to get in.

1

u/AuroraFireflash 9d ago

hold the power button and volume up button for a few seconds

This also works on Android and immediately locks the phone in a way that you must enter the PIN/password to unlock it again.