Android is now introducing a new feature into smartphones that can help users disable their smartphones from the internet. If your smartphone is stolen or lost, you can completely disable the phone by bricking it and permanently disabling it from booting. The new feature will help you track the phone over the internet and brick the device.
According to XDA Developers, Google allows you to brick the device via recovery mode. The feature is also accessible from Android Device Manager and is designed to securely wipe out all the partitions on the lost phone or tablet. However, this will also require help from OEM manufacturers which will need to design their operating systems to allow access to the partitions.
With this new feature, users can have the power to remotely kill their lost Android smartphones and render them useless. Google is also said to include this feature in Android N as well as Android Device Manager.
Remote bricking can help users take control on their privacy. Anyone who stole their smartphone or found it and decides against returning it could see a completely useless device in their hands. The phone will refuse to boot as all the partitions will be wiped out remotely. The phone once wiped out will lose all data and functionality and the process is irreversible.
It is unclear if Google will provide users a method to recover the phone back to working condition if the user finds his smartphone back. But for now, users should know that this is the last resort if the device is unrecoverable.
