Google has released an important update, one that will automatically restart phones if they have been locked for three days.

Google announced the change in a support page.

Security & Privacy

[Phone] With this feature, your device automatically restarts if locked for 3 consecutive days.

Why the Feature Is Important

Before First Unlock (BFU), all data on an Android device is fully encrypted. Once the phone is unlocked with the PIN or passcode, the data is unencrypted, although still protected by fingerprint or facial recognition.

Forcing a device to restart, after it’s been idle for three days, essentially re-encrypts the data and ensures it cannot be accessed without unlocking it with the PIN. Apple adopted a similar approach for iPhones in iOS 18.

The simple act of regularly rebooting a device is so important that the NSA lists it as one of its top recommendations for keeping an Android or iOS device secure.

GrapheneOS, the outstanding security and privacy-focused version of Android we previously reviewed, has had the automatic reboot feature for some time, even giving users the ability to specify the length of the reboot window.

It’s good to see Google adopting such an important feature and including it in the broader Android platform.