Google’s got some ease-of-use improvements for how trusted places keep your phone unlocked

The tools we use to keep our phones secure are getting better and more convenient to use all the time — just look at how Google brought fast, reliable ultrasonic fingerprint scanning to this year’s Pixel 9 family. But even the fastest fingerprint unlock in the world is always going to be slightly more cumbersome than a phone that’s just already unlocked when we need it, and that’s exactly where features like Extend Unlock and Android’s support for trusted places come in. We’ve recently been following Google’s work on a few improvements for how trusted places operate, and it looks like those changes are finally rolling out to users.

Trusted place allows Android users to define “safe” spaces where they’re OK leaving their phones unlocked for extended periods of time. So far you’ve been able to set additional trusted places without issue, but a problem arose if you ever wanted to turn it off, forcing you to manually delete all those place entries. We found evidence that Google was preparing a much more convenient toggle that would let you turn Extend Unlock off for trusted places with just a tap, and now we’re finally starting to see that change go public.

In addition to the easy on-on switch, trusted places also get the new location picker interface we already previewed, letting you set up new places by just dropping a pin on the map.

For as handy as using trusted places can be to help keep your phone instantly accessible, Google sure hasn’t made it particularly easy to access, burying its controls deep within system settings. Rather than continuing to exist behind several screens of security options, we also uncovered Google’s work towards also making trusted places accessible in location settings. That’s similarly beginning to see wide availability as Google pushes out these latest changes.

Look for all these improvements to start hitting your phone via Google Play Services over the days to come.