Android’s New Feature: ‘On-Body’ Smart Lock To Foil Device Thieves

Android users are beginning to see an option for on-body detection security.  The feature uses the devices’ accelerometer to decide out when the device is in your hand or pocket and lock when it’s not. The thought behind this new feature is that is that if you leave your phone sitting on a table or forget it somewhere, it will lock, preventing possible thieves from easily accessing your data.

It is a convenience and security feature. Once you unlock your phone, it will stay unlocked when you’re holding it or if it is in your pocket. Once you set it down, it will lock again. Picking it back up requires you to manually unlock it. However, if you hand the phone to someone else while it is unlocked, it will not lock – the feature is not able to recognize that who is specifically holding the phone. It just knows when the phone is being held or pocketed and when it is not.

With majority of Google’s partner manufacturers staying away from fingerprint scanning tech, the company is being forced to come up with easy unlock alternatives that don’t compromise a devices’ security. Trusted Places, Trusted Devices and Trusted Face were few features that were rolled out with Android Lollipop. On-Body Unlock becomes a part of those features.

The best part about these features? They do not require any additional hardware to work; which means that even users of low-cost devices that skimp on the latest and best hardware have access to them.

This is one more option to Android’s growing stable of ways to make device use more painless. If you are not seeing it just yet, keep checking back, as it appears to be rolling out slowly via updates to Google Play Services.

If you have got it and are using it, tell us what you think in the comments.