Following the announcement in December, Google is now rolling out Android’s Identity Check security feature to Pixel devices. It’s also coming to “One UI 7 eligible Galaxy devices in the coming weeks.”
When Identity Check is enabled, your phone will require “explicit biometric authentication to access certain sensitive [settings and actions] when you’re outside of trusted locations.” As such, a bad actor knowing your device PIN isn’t enough. It’s triggered when you:
- Access saved passwords and passkeys with Google Password Manager.
- Autofill passwords in apps from Google Password Manager, except in Chrome.
- Change screen lock, like PIN, pattern, and password.
- Change biometrics, like Fingerprint or Face Unlock.
- Run a factory reset.
- Turn off Find My Device.
- Turn off any theft protection features.
- View trusted places.
- Turn off Identity Check.
- Set up a new device with your current device.
- Add or remove a Google Account.
- Access Developer options.
Identity Check also introduces enhanced Google Account protection to make it “much more difficult for an unauthorized attacker to take over accounts signed in on the device.” There’s also “additional security for Samsung Accounts on One UI 7 eligible Galaxy devices.”
- Change your password from [Google] account settings or through “Forgot password.”
- Add or change recovery factors on the device.
You have to designate one or more trusted locations, like Home and/or Work, in Settings, while a class 3 biometrics Android device is required.
Google is now officially rolling out Identity Check to Pixel devices with Android 15 and the latest stable version of Play services. After Samsung, it will come to other supported Android devices “later this year.”
Once available, go to (Pixel) Settings app > Security & privacy > Device unlock > Theft protection > Identity Check to activate. (Alternatively, Settings > Google > All services > Theft protection.)
This joins last year’s Theft Detection Lock, which Google now says has “fully rolled out to Android 10+ phones around the world.”
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