Android Lollipop is getting an “on-body detection” feature that keeps your phone unlocked in your pocket
If you’re the type of person who hates having to unlock their smartphone each time they take it out of their pocket, Google is working on a feature just for you. It’s called on-body detection, and through the use of the accelerometer it predicts when the phone is in your pocket or hand and will keep it unlocked for easy use the next time you reach for it. Once you set it down on a desk or flat surface, it’ll revert to its normal locked state until the next time you unlock it.
There are several red flags that will immediately come to mind. The biggest question: how can the device tell the difference between you carrying it and someone else carrying it? It can’t, so if the device was unlocked while you were moving and the phone somehow exchanges hands while you’re still moving, it will remain unlocked and any no-gooders will have full access.
As such, this feature actually sacrifices a fair bit of security to give the user a bit more convenience. Whether that convenience is worth the sacrifice is up to you to decide based on your needs, usage pattern and environment (for instance, this wouldn’t be a feature necessary for a work-at-home guy like myself).
You can turn the feature on or off just as easily as anything else, of course, so whether you want to use it is entirely up to you. The feature is said to be headed to Lollipop devices in a very limited manner right now, and it will be distributed through an update to Google Play Services so you won’t have to wait for a firmware update or download anything from Google Play to get it. Any of you going to be using this?
[via The Verge]