A new Android feature locks your screen if your phone is stolen

Google is rolling out a new set of features aimed at making it less easy for thieves to access your data. That’s according to Mishaal Rahman, who posted on Reddit that the features are showing up in a new update after seeing that his Xiaomi 14T Pro phone now has Theft Detection Lock and Offline Device Lock, two of three features Google announced in May. Others say they only see the third one, called Remote Lock.

The flashiest of the new features is Theft Detection Lock, which uses AI to lock your screen when it detects “common motion associated with theft,” like someone snatching your phone out of your hand. Meanwhile, Offline Device Lock locks a device’s screen when it’s offline for a while, and Remote Lock lets users lock their phone using only their phone number when they can’t log into Find My Device with their password.

So far, I’m not seeing any of the features on my own Pixel 6. You can see screenshots of the new features’ settings in the overnight Threads post from Rahman below.

Theft Detection Lock and Offline Device Lock are supported on any Android device running Android 10 and up, while you’ll need at least Android 5 for Remote Lock. If you don’t have the features yet, you can try updating Google Play Services, though Google tends to roll out new features over time, rather than to everyone at once, so, like me, you may have to wait.