Android theft protection: How to enable it and protect your smartphone

Losing a phone is one of the biggest worries facing smartphone users right now. As smartphones have personal information including our banking details, their theft can cause a lot of anxiety. To help Android users protect their smartphones, Google introduced a new feature called Android theft protection last year. The idea is that once enabled, your phone gains additional security in case it is taken right out of your hands.

Android theft protection: What you need to know

Our smartphones are a gateway to our digital lives, containing secretive information like bank passwords, personal photos, communication, etc. If our phone gets taken out of our hands then it could be a target device to access your info and other data. To ensure that your phone doesn’t fall into the hands of bad actors, Google has introduced Anti Theft Protection via an update to the Google Play Store.

Once enabled, the theft detection lock on Android devices can detect when the device is stolen or taken away from your hands. If it detects that your phone is stolen, it will lock the phone forcing the thief to try and unlock the device by entering your password.

The theft detection lock is joined by another feature called Offline Device Lock, which will lock the device after it goes offline. While it may not be perfect, the feature allows users to locate their device using the Find My Device app on another phone or tablet. The theft protection lock was rolled out as a way for Android users to ensure their photo reaction time is high.

How to turn on Android theft protection

The process for turning on the theft protection feature on Android is relatively easy. Here is a step-by-step look at how quickly and easily you can enable Android theft protection on device:

Step 1: Go to Settings on your Android phone.

Step 2: Scroll and find Google.

Step 3: Click on “All services”

Step 4: Find and tap on Theft Protection.

Step 5: Between Theft Detection Lock and Offline Device Lock, choose which services you want to enable.

Step 6: You should also set up the Remote Lock by tapping on the toggle next to it.

ALSO READ: Android 15: What you need to know about Google’s latest smartphone OS

The theft protection lock is a feature that most users hope they never need to use, but in case of theft, it is a feature that could help you retrieve your phone. If you have an Android 15 device with this feature, we recommend you enable all the features and try them to see how they improve your user experience. While theft protection does not mean your phone will not be stolen, it is a great addition to Android’s security suite.