Here’s how Android Identity Check will start taking advantage of your smartwatch (APK teardown)

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Identity Check offers an extra layer of protection when someone steals both your phone and your PIN.By requiring biometrics, Identity Check attempts to limit the harm bad actors could do.Google is working to let you bypass that biometric requirement when your device is connected to a trusted smartwatch.We all want our devices to be secure, but practical considerations mean we’re often striking a balance between security and convenience. That’s not a bad thing at all, as we don’t always need to be taking advantage of every security protection available to us, and systems like Android’s Identity Check are built for just this reason, letting us get away with just using a PIN or biometrics when we’re at home, but beefing up security and insisting on both when outside a trusted location.Just last week, we looked at one way Identity Check could soon be changing, with the tool evolving to recognizing the presence of your connected smartwatch. At the time it wasn’t yet clear exactly how the watch would alter Identity Check’s behavior, but now it’s starting to come into focus.