Google is working on an “inactivity reboot” for Android 16

An APK teardown of the Google Play Services app shows that Google might add a new security feature to its operating system that is called “inactivity reboot.”

For months, it’s been known that Google is emphasizing security in the upcoming version of its Android 16 operating system. The tech company calls this Advanced Protection Mode (APM).

This feature will prevent you from installing apps outside the official Google Play Store (sideloading), enable Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) to protect against memory safety bugs in Android apps and disable 2G connections to mitigate the risk of users being tricked into connecting to rogue 2G networks designed for surveillance.

Google might have another ace up its sleeve.

Android Authority, which deconstructed the Google Play Services app (version 25.11.34), discovered a reference to an inactivity reboot feature for the Android 16 update.

A code snippet suggests that this feature will simply reboot your mobile phone if it remains inactive for three days. The snippet also includes the term ‘AAPM,’ which most likely stands for Android Advanced Protection Mode.

This inactivity reboot feature may scare thieves off from nicking phones. If someone steals your phone, they would have only three days to bypass facial recognition or fingerprint locking and steal your data. After that, biometrics will no longer work – only a PIN or passcode can then unlock your phone.

For the time being, we can’t be sure whether Google will implement this new security feature in Android 16. It’s still a work in progress, and engineers could decide to make some changes before the newest version of Google’s operating system launches – or to leave it out completely.

Google isn’t the first manufacturer to introduce an inactivity reboot functionality. The privacy-focused GrapheneOS has long offered an optional auto-reboot feature. And Apple introduced this security option in iOS 18.