Android ships with a ton of options already enabled by default that you simply did not ask for, like an adaptive battery that may throttle your background apps, pre-installed Google apps that sync within the background, and default utilization and diagnostics sharing, which you may solely discover when you go searching within the Privateness Dashboard.
However what in regards to the reverse difficulty, like options which might be genuinely helpful and prepared to be used that simply aren’t enabled from the beginning? I went on the lookout for a few of these and located three that made me marvel why they weren’t already an lively a part of my Android system.
Theft Detection Lock
It is on any system with Android 10 or newer
Theft Detection Lock makes use of on-device AI programs alongside together with your telephone’s movement sensors, Wi-Fi connection standing, and Bluetooth to detect when somebody has grabbed your telephone and run off with it. If the system’s algorithm senses this snatch-and-run sample, it locks the display screen instantly so the thief has no time to begin rifling by means of your banking apps or Google account.
The function rolled out in late 2024 for any system working Android 10 or newer, and it is delivered through a Google Play Providers replace reasonably than a full OS improve. That is nice for folk with older telephones; you do not want the most recent and biggest OS to make the most of the lock.
Theft Detection Lock comes with two companion options which might be price enabling, too. Offline Gadget Lock mechanically locks the display screen in case your telephone goes offline for an prolonged time period, like if a thief switches it to Airplane Mode to dam Discover My Gadget. Failed Authentication Lock kicks in after too many unsuitable PIN makes an attempt, too, and the three of those options work collectively to maintain your information secure, even when somebody grabs the telephone itself.
To show these options on, seek for Theft Safety in your Settings app and open it. You may discover toggles for every of the three options there.
I am of the opinion that these security measures must be on by default, and somebody agrees with me, since in Brazil, Google made it the default state as of January 2026. Here is hoping extra locations get it enabled quickly.
Personal House’s sandboxed profile
A hidden telephone inside your telephone
This Android 15 function creates an remoted setting inside your telephone that is utterly separate out of your predominant profile. Any apps you put in there do not share information together with your predominant profile, do not seem in current app or search outcomes, and do not ship any notifications whereas the house is locked. In the event you disguise it, there isn’t any visible clue that it exists.
Personal House runs as its personal consumer id on the system, in keeping with developer Jason Bayton, and it is constructed on the identical underlying stack as Android’s work profile. It isn’t an app vault or a PIN-protected folder. In the event you set up, say, a banking app in Personal House, it could’t attain information from the very same app put in in your predominant profile, and vice versa.
This may be helpful for issues like separate messaging accounts, banking or well being apps you’d reasonably not have anybody else accessing in the event that they’re utilizing your telephone, or work apps tied to a distinct Google account. You might then run two situations of the identical app on the identical time, one utilizing your predominant profile and one from Personal House, every logged into a distinct account.
On my Pixel 9, I went into Settings > Safety & Privateness > Personal House and walked by means of the setup. I logged in with my present Google account (although I may have used a distinct one) after which set the lock display screen move code, which might be the identical or totally different as my present one. As soon as that is taken care of, I swiped to the underside of the app drawer and located the Personal space. I unlocked it at first, then there’s an choice to re-lock it with a faucet to the Lock button.
Personal House requires Android 15 and greater than 6GB of RAM, and setup takes a few minutes to authenticate and (optionally) add a separate Google account for true isolation, and to set a lock code, which may be completely totally different or the identical as your present one.
Samsung apparently has an analogous function, Safe Folder, that’s restricted to these particular gadgets. OnePlus Open has its personal “Hidden House” in OxygenOS, too. Android’s Personal House opens up the function for any qualifying Android 15 system as a substitute of being OEM-specific and actually can run proper alongside these different platforms.
Why is Personal House off by default? It might be that setup would trigger extra friction for the usual consumer throughout preliminary setup, however I might argue that Android may supply a “remind me later” sort of system to no less than put this in entrance of people that won’t even understand it exists.
Now Taking part in works totally in your system
This lock display screen function names the songs taking part in within the room.
Now Taking part in is a Pixel-exclusive function that passively identifies music that is taking part in close by and shows the music and artist in your lock display screen. That is in distinction to an app like Shazam, which wants you to activate the listening to determine songs. Now Taking part in works utterly independently and now even features a working historical past you possibly can scroll again by means of later. It additionally works offline, evaluating the audio it hears in opposition to a domestically saved database of audio “fingerprints” as a substitute of sending the information off to a web based server. No uncooked audio leaves your system throughout the auto recognition.
Whereas Now Taking part in had a tough couple of years throughout 2024 and 2025, figuring out just one music out of ten, in keeping with Gadget Hacks, Google mounted it within the March 2026 Pixel Drop, which moved Now Taking part in out of System Intelligence and right into a standalone Play Retailer app. Now Google can push updates outdoors the common OS releases.
Now Taking part in is, actually, introduced as an opt-in throughout Pixel setup, although individuals can completely skip putting in it. If you wish to see if it is enabled by yourself telephone, try Settings > Sound & Vibration > Now Taking part in, toggle it on after which add the lock display screen shortcut to manually determine songs if you wish to.
In fact, the battery value is authentic. There’s a drain from retaining Now Taking part in lively, as a result of it samples ambient audio every so often and makes use of the telephone’s low-power audio processor to take action. It is a small drain, and having it as opt-in as a substitute of on by default is smart in that case. Nonetheless, it will be good to have it opt-out, maybe, since it is a fairly nice function, one which’s above and past the opposite providers like Shazam (which has been built-in into iOS).
Inbuilt however straightforward to overlook
All three options above share an analogous drawback: They’re in your telephone already as totally realized capabilities of your Android telephone, however Google left them (largely) within the Settings so that you can come upon. Whereas you may make the case that every function is left off by default for purpose (setup friction, battery drain), there’s acquired to be one other approach for Android to remind you that these are nice options and may gain advantage you in the long term.
