Android 17 is still missing a vital security feature that Samsung has had for years

Published Nov 10, 2026, 1:00 PM EST Jamaluddeen is a features contributor at Android Police, where he dissects Android phones and tablets. He made his first contribution to the site in 2023, where he left his mark on 80+ buyer’s guide articles, helping tech lovers make informed buying decisions. He’s a B.Eng. (Mechanical) finalist, and when not rummaging through the Android ecosystem, you’ll find him extending his frontiers with non-fiction books on science, productivity, persuasion, communication, artificial intelligence, and more. Smartphone theft is widespread worldwide. In London, for example, about 71,867 phones were stolen in 2025. That's about 220 a day. There are no recent official stats for cities in the US, but estimates place the number of stolen phones much higher than 220 per day. As someone who knows the pain of losing their device to a thief, I'll always advocate for features that increase the chances of retrieving my device if it's ever stolen. That's why I find it unacceptable that Android 17 phones are being shipped while missing a feature that's supposed to prevent a thief from making your phone untraceable. A stolen offline phone is difficult to track And an offline Android is impossible to find, unless it's a Pixel In a test I ran, I switched off my Galaxy phone and tried to track it with Samsung Find and Google Find Hub. Both location trackers failed to spot my device. That's because, for a switched-off Galaxy phone, Samsung Find and Google Find Hub only show its last seen location. This is how most Android phone tracking systems work. The only exception is recent Pixel phones. Google says a Pixel 8, 9, or 10 can be found for several hours after it's powered off. For this to work, the phone's Bluetooth and Location must be on when the device shuts down. That's why it's a serious problem when a thief can easily power off a device from the lock screen. That's the case with many Android phones running Android 17 today. Samsung shut the door on thieves years ago With one toggle, switching off my Galaxy requires my passcode Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police On Galaxy phones, there's a setting called Lock network and security. This setting makes it impossible to shut down your phone from its lock screen without providing the passcode. The feature also prevents mobile data, Wi-Fi, and Airplane modes from being turned on from the lock screen. This is Samsung's remedy to a thief shutting down your phone and making it untraceable. Samsung has had this feature on its phones since at least 2017. However, it has always been turned off by default, even to this day. So you have to activate it manually. To do so, follow these steps: Go to Settings. Tap Lock screen and AOD. Tap Secure lock settings and enter your passcode. Turn on the toggle for Lock network and security. Its best lock waits until you mark the phone lost Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police Android 17 was released with some remarkable Android theft protection features. Some were inherited from older Android versions, and a few came fresh when the operating system launched. Three of the most notable ones are the Theft Detection Lock, Remote Lock, and Find Hub's Mark as lost. The first two features are active by default on new, reset, or upgraded Android 17 phones. However, Find Hub's Mark as lost is only triggered manually when your phone is stolen. The Theft Detection feature detects when a thief snatches your phone and locks the device's screen. Remote Lock, on the other hand, lets you lock your lost or stolen Android phone from another device. Find Hub's Mark as Lost is the most encouraging of the three features. When triggered, it hides your phone's Quick Settings, making it impossible for a thief to turn off your internet connection or turn on Airplane mode. Additionally, the feature prevents your phone from pairing to a new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth source. So, in one way, it does more than Samsung's Lock network and security. However, the feature falls apart because it doesn't stay on permanently. If your phone is stolen, you have to get another device, log in to Google Find Hub, and activate the feature for it to work. I don't need a stopwatch to realize a thief will be quicker to turn off my device or its internet connection before I can get through the slow activation ritual. Google is finally doing something about the missing feature But it's not on mainstream Android yet On its latest Pixels, Google has been testing a similar version of the Lock network and security setting. It's called Lock Quick Settings connectivity, and it's off by default. When you turn it on, your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data, and Airplane mode toggles become unusable from your lock screen. However, other quick settings like flashlight, auto-rotate, and Battery Saver stay open and usable, just as they are on Samsung's Lock network and Security. The setting arrived in a public beta on Oct. 20, 2026, with Android 17 QPR3 Beta 2, for the Google Pixel 6a and newer. For now, the setting is only on Pixels running a beta, and not in a stable release. But it suggests the feature will come to Pixels soon. Google hasn't said anything about other Android phones. So, non-Pixel phones running Android 17 are still left uncovered. Google owes Android users Lock network and security, even though it's not perfect Over the last couple of years, most of the anti-theft features Google has released have rarely been geared towards helping you track and retrieve your stolen phone. Instead, they've mostly been made to protect your data on a stolen, never-to-be-retrieved device. When I look at this approach more closely, it has some merit. Most stolen phones are never recovered. And there are many, many reasons why that's the case. One reason is that most organized thieves place stolen phones in a Faraday bag that cuts every connection the devices have to the outside world. Such phones cannot receive calls, connect to the internet, or be tracked by any means. Still, that doesn't justify Android 17 not having Lock network and security built in. Yes, the feature has limits, but the same applies to literally every other security tool or product.