Google I/O, the yearly event for everything about google software, has started. As always, Android phone is the main focus. With better privacy, Google Wallet upgrades, theft detection and app safety checks, there are a lot to look forward to.
Here, you can learn about all new feature and updates that are related to android from I/O 2024.
Google Wallet Making your Transection Easier
Do you have a pass that has a lot of text, a library card, an insurance slip, or a gym membership card? If you live in U.S. just scan it with Google Wallet app, and it will make a digital copy for easy access later, while securing it with a passcode or biometric protection. This feature is not specially for Android 15, so you don’t have to wait for that big update to use it.
Android Phone Update: Double-Checks for Permissions
Shady apps have been misusing their on-device permission and privileges for years to cause all sorts of trouble. To fix this problem, the Restricted Settings system will now ask users for an extra layer of approval before they give permissions to apps installed from the internet or any other source apart from the Google Play Store.
Anti-theft Safeguard Protection
As the name suggests, this feature uses AI to detect sudden movements, like someone running away or riding a bike with your stolen phone. In such cases, the phone will automatically lock so the thief or any other bad person cannot get to your personal information.
If a device is stolen and the thief resets the phone, it cannot be set up without the original owner’s Google account details, making it useless. To ensure that important safety feature like Find My device are only turned off by the real owner, Android, will protect these controls with a password lock.
If your device is stolen and theft protection was active on it, Google will block sensitive actions like changing PINs. Account details, and accessing Passkey from a new place. These protections will come out as part of Android 15’s public release later this year.
If your phone is stolen and you can’t remember your Google account details for a remote lock or full factory reset, there is a new option that uses the phone number and security question to let users do the same. This remote lock feature will be turned on for devices running Android 10 or new version later this year.
Android Phone Update: Fraud Prevention Protection
Once again, Google will use AI to find that might be doing suspicions things, like fraud or phishing, by checking their activity and device permissions in real time. If an app is found to be fraudulent after an automated check and human review, a warning will be sent to users, but action are depends on users. Also, no data will be erased.
Beside Google’s Pixel phones, devices from OnePlus, Nothing, Oppo, Lenovo, and Honor, among others, will enable live threat detection later this year.
Android Phone Update: Private Space
If you don’t want to show an app like your vault or app in your library or drawer for security reasons. Locked behind a password or biometric authentication, Private Space appears as a separate folder at the bottom of the app Library. Only after authentication will it let you see the sensitive apps, like those used for banking and secure communication, among others. Unlike some of the features here, you will need to wait for an Android 15 update before you can use private space on your phone.
Protection of One-Time Passwords
Interceptions are a common way to steal sensitive one-time passwords (OTPs), but there are other different ways that bad person can steal them. Google is blocking at least one of these ways. So, android will no longer show OTPs in notification banners, keeping them safe from prying eyes.
Similar, if you are sharing, notification with OTPs or those from a private app will be hidden. It’ like the protected screen-sharing system in Android 15. And if you are sharing screen and need to enter log-in details or sensitive data like banking information, the screen will be hidden during that time.
Network and Call Protection
Network interception is a real danger. To fix this, Google is adding a new system called Cellular Cypher Transparency that will check if a network is encrypted. If it’s not encrypted, which can leave call and messaging channels unsafe, Google will warn users beforehand.
For at-risk people, like activists and journalists, Google will alert them if a spy tool or spyware is tracking their location using the device’s unique hardware ID. This feature aims to make these vulnerable people safer.
Android Phone Updates: What’s new in Android 15?
In Android news, Google has released the second beta update of Android 15 for Pixel Phones. They are also letting more phone test Android 15 beta, like OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi, Honor, and Nothing.
For big screens, Android 15 lets you stick the taskbar at the bottom. It also lets you have pairs of apps to open them side by side easily.
For devices like foldable phones and tablets, Google is also making it easier to change size of an app’s screen and show more or less information. In Android 15, when you open an app like Google Calendar, you can make the part you bigger or smaller, just like on a computer.
Health Connect, which is a place where you can see all your fitness and health information, Is now able to show new types of data, like training plans and your skin temperature.
