Google would allow you to unlock your smartphone with your connected watch in Android 13. For now, the giant hasn’t announced anything, but you can see it in the source code of the latest Google Play Services update.
Android 13 is gradually being revealed and the first betas are appearing. But apparently, we are still far from having discovered all the novelties of the next version of the mobile operating system. We would have found a feature not yet announced by Google, called “ Nearby Unlock », or proximity unlocking in French, which would allow you to unlock your smartphone with your connected watch.
However, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a proximity unlock feature. XDA Developers recalls that we had seen Smart Unlock in a previous beta version of Google services.
We found traces of Nearby Unlockin Google services
This is Mishaal Rahman, Android expert and former editor of XDA Developers(which relays the information), which found a feature of Android 13 not yet presented. Named ” Nearby Unlock», it will allow to use a smart watchfor ” unlock your phone safely after waking it up“. By exploring the code of the v22.24.13 update of Google Play Services, we learn more about the functionality and we are even entitled to an animation illustrating its operation.
Here’s an animation found within Google Play Services that illustrates this “Nearby Unlock” feature. pic.twitter.com/ChjxbkieZK
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 17, 2022
You could therefore unlock your phone if your connected watch is also unlocked, that it is on your wrist and near the smartphone in question. Furthermore, we learn that when you unlock your watch, it stays unlocked as long as you wear itto prevent a malicious person from stealing both devices and accessing the content of your phone. Function ” Neary Unlockwill send a notification to the watch after being activated. Pressing it will lock it instantly.
The notification that Mishaal Rahman got is likely from the initial setup process for the feature. She presents howNeary Unlockworks.
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