Android will soon have a feature that allows phones to restart automatically after so many days

If your smartphone also restarts automatically at some point in time, don't panic. We are writing this since Google has rolled out a fresh security feature to add more security to Android users. According to this new feature, whenever your Android smartphone is locked for three consecutive days and is not accessed, even then, it will automatically restart. The change is being rolled out through Google Play Services' latest version number 25.14.

The prime reason behind this feature is to enhance data security in such circumstances where the phone is stolen or lost. The moment that phone automatically restarts, it will switch to "Before First Unlock" or BFU state. During that state, all data stored in the phone is encrypted, and biometric functionality such as face and fingerprint is not operational unless accessed by opting to enter a passcode, pattern, or password.

Google believes that if a device is locked and unused for several days, it may have been lost or stolen. In such a situation, sending the phone to a strong lock state by auto-restarting protects the data from unwanted access. This feature is very similar to the Inactivity Reboot feature in Apple's iOS 18.1. Apart from this, such technology is already present on privacy-focused platforms like GrapheneOS.

It is worth noting that this feature is being released through Google Play Services, so that it can be delivered to most users without waiting for a major update of the Android operating system. This feature will be applicable to Android phones and tablets, but not to smartwatch devices with Wear OS.