Saying ‘Ok Google’ Will Not Unlock Your Android Phone Anymore

The option to unlock without physically touching the phone was a convenient option for many users.

Google Assistant on Android localises in a new way for Indian users. 

(Photo: The Quint(

There’s good news for those worried about their phone’s security from usage of voice command via Google Assistant. Google has made sure that the voice assistant won’t let you unlock phones from now.

So, next time you say Ok Google, the device screen will light up but it’ll ask for additional lock (PIN or pattern) before letting you or anyone access the content of the device. Now, many people might say that the hands-free option to unlock a phone comes in handy when you’ve got dirty hands or away from the device.

But it’s likely that Google saw this convenience with an eye for concern and rightly so. The removal of this feature is happening for all Android devices via an update to Google Assistant.

This feature was first rolled out for Pixel users (no surprises there) but it’s good to see that Google is pushing it to other users now. This is a security-centric change and we’re not sure why Google didn’t think of its privacy hazards before itself.

(Photo: Google support screen grab)

Having said that, you can still get content on your local screen, with messages, mail and other basic notifications without unlocking the device.

Now that Google has removed this feature, some users, who were finding it convenient (not bothered about their security) might question Google for not letting them at least manually select the option.

Instead of using voice command to unlock devices, users will be able to count on fingerprint lock or even the software-based facial recognition, which is the less secure of the two.