No an Android user, so I'm not sure what distinction you're making. On iOS there's not really a distinction between the two [1].
> Activation Lock is an Apple feature designed to prevent the unauthorized transfer or use of Apple devices. Built into Apple’s Find My system, it’s Apple’s implementation of factory reset protection, which manufacturers are legally required to include in order to sell smartphones in the US.
Given that it's been legally required since 2015 to sell smartphones, this must be something else.
> Factory reset upgrade prevents a reset by a thief. For some criminals, the goal is to quickly reset your stolen device and resell it. We’re making it more difficult to do that with an upgrade to Android’s factory reset protection. With this upgrade, if a thief forces a reset of the stolen device, they’re not able to set it up again without knowing your device or Google account credentials. This renders a stolen device unsellable, reducing incentives for phone theft.
> More steps for changing sensitive device settings to protect your data. Disabling Find My Device or extending screen timeout now requires your PIN, password or biometric authentication, adding an extra layer of security preventing criminals who got a hold of your device from keeping it unlocked or untrackable online.
> When enabled, our new enhanced authentication will require biometrics for accessing and changing critical Google account and device settings, like changing your PIN, disabling theft protection or accessing Passkeys, from an untrusted location.
AFAIK this has always been true for iOS, or true for as long as I can remember at least.
The rest is pretty neat & unique to Android though (e.g. a separate PIN-required space for certain apps like bank or health data, automatic protection on snatch, fast-lock using very low-overhead authentication mechanism).
Perhaps you are using "activation lock" to mean the carrier imposed requirement that some mobile phones are restricted to their network? On iOS, it seems like activation lock refers to exactly the feature that Android is touting finally works with new updates to FRP.
Android and ios boot mechanism are pretty identical: secure boot -> unlock modem -> unlock user area. There are some differences in where in the CPU this happes and how it is protected but Pixel phones are pretty close to iPhone even if we look at such details.
No I’m not. So if what you say is correct, why does this announcement have a section for “Factory Restore Protection” as a new feature if Android phones have already worked this way?
The “improvement” it describes involves taking it from being nonfunctional to functional. The original comment I responded to suggested that it was previously a client side validation that could be easily bypassed.
