- Inactivity Reboot: An incoming option that’ll automatically restart your device anytime it remains locked for 72 consecutive hours — thus suggesting you aren’t actively using it for one reason or another — and re-encrypting all your data so it’ll be accessible only after a full password or pattern unlock.
- Intrusion Logging: A privacy-minded feature that securely stores logs of sensitive system actions in the cloud, encrypted and connected solely to your Google account, so you could seek out answers if something suspicious were ever to happen on your device.
- USB Protection: Setting your phone’s USB port to allow only charging by default instead of active data transfers — to prevent anyone from being able to physically plug a drive into the device and transfer files off the phone without your knowledge (unlikely as that may be to occur).
- Disable Auto-Reconnect to Insecure Networks: Exactly as its name suggests, your phone won’t ever automatically reconnect to a network that isn’t secure, even if you manually ask to connect to such a network once.
Android 16 Advanced Protection fact #4: All of this is still only part of the picture
While Advanced Protection makes it much easier to enable all the most advisable Android security settings, even that is just one piece of an optimal Android security puzzle.
First and foremost, you might’ve noticed that the name of this program feels familiar. (If so, good job! Go get yourself a cookie and/or slushie treat, preferably chocolate chip and blue, respectively.) That’s because Google also offers an all-around account-protecting program called Advanced Protection.
That program is a bit more intense in what it does, and — unlike this new Android-specific equivalent — by design isn’t intended for everyone. It requires you to rely on physical security keys anytime you sign into your Google account, for instance, and it severely limits the ways in which third-party apps can connect to your account — steps that are smart for people in higher-profile or more at-risk positions but may be overly restrictive for other, more ordinary Android-owning animals.
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