Android devices will now reboot automatically if they remain locked for three consecutive days, as part of a new security measure.
On Monday, Google rolled out updates to Google Play services — a core component of the Android system responsible for supporting both the OS and apps. Within the “Security & Privacy” section, a new feature was introduced that states: “Your device will automatically restart if it remains locked for three days in a row.”
This move mirrors a similar security feature introduced by Apple in iOS last year. The goal is to complicate efforts by third parties, including law enforcement using tools from companies like Cellebrite or Magnet Forensics, to access data from locked devices.
Phones that haven’t been unlocked since their last boot are in what’s called the “Before First Unlock” state, where their data is fully encrypted and significantly harder to access without the correct passcode. Once a device is unlocked, it transitions to the “After First Unlock” state, where some data becomes decrypted and more vulnerable to attacks like brute-force or exploit-based access.
When contacted for further details on the reasoning behind this change, Google did not provide a comment.
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