Like iPhone, Android phones will soon automatically restart if you don’t unlock them for 3 days | Technology News
When Apple launched iOS 18.1 last year, the company introduced a new feature called “inactivity reboot”, which forced iPhones to automatically restart three days after it was left inactive. Google has now taken a page out of the iOS 18’s playbook and will soon roll out a new feature for Android devices that automatically restarts the phone if it hasn’t been unlocked in the last 72 hours or 3 days.
The auto-reboot feature, as it is often called, comes in handy if you have a lot of devices lying around that you don’t use as well as for security purposes, since it may help prevent unwanted people from accessing your device. Also also caused a lot of controversy last year when several law enforcement officers said they were suddenly unable to unlock suspects’ smartphones which they had retrieved in a readable state.
Led under the Security & Privacy section, it will soon be available on millions of Android devices with the Google Play Services (v25.14). While Android Auto, TV and WearOS users will be missing out on these features, it should appear on Android powered tablets as well. Google hasn’t clarified if and when the auto-reboot feature will be rolling out for all supported devices, but it usually takes anywhere between a week to two for them to appear.
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Why restart phones in the first place??
Most modern operating systems like Windows, Android and iOS are stable enough to handle anything and work without any issues for days without powering off or requiring a restart.
And while Android and iPhones both keep your data encrypted, it is most secure when the phone is in the Before First Unlock (BFU) state, which makes copying or accessing data much harder. This isn’t a foolproof solution, but it does make it harder for hackers and cybercriminals to access your device.
Even the National Security Agency (NSA), the organisation accused Edward Snowden of spying on people and politicians in the United States recommends Android and iPhone users should restart their phone every week to bolster security. The tip comes from a few years old NSA document which also shared some practices to keep phones safe from threat actors and malware.
Restarting your phone every once in a few days can also help fix buggy apps draining battery or causing performance issues and even help with some zero-day exploits. For those wondering, Pegasus maker NSO Group used zero-day exploits to spy on their targets.
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