Android’s Identity Check could soon get a helping hand, or wrist, from your wearable

We recently talked about Google’s intention to enhance Identity Check with support for companion wearables. Just a week has passed since, and it looks like the tech giant has already made significant progress with the feature.

For those unaware, Identity Check is part of Google’s suite of anti-theft features. It aims to prevent sensitive data from being accessed once your smartphone has been stolen from you. It does so by requesting mandatory biometric authentication when trying to access sensitive account or device settings away from a trusted location. The logic is that if your phone is in a pre-determined trusted location, like your hosue, then it hasn’t been stolen. Accessing sensitive data during this stage only requires the bare minimum of authentication.

When outside a trusted location, the device does not know if it has been snatched from you or not, so it preemptively requests biometric authentication. If it’s still with you, you simply authenticate and get going. If the device has indeed been stolen, the threat actor will not be able to bypass the need for biometric authentication.

Now this is where your wearable comes in. When you are out and about, and need to access a sensitive setting on the go, you’d normally have to bypass biometric authentication. Google wants to reduce friction and make this process smoother by handing off some responsibility to your wearable.

When first spotted last week, code strings indicated that the feature would utilize your wearable as a source of authentication. The full role of the paired wearable, however, wasn’t entirely clear. Now, with new code strings unearthed in the latest version 25.31.30 beta release of Google Play Services by the folks over at Android Authority, we’re getting some clear answers.

You’ll be able to skip biometrics if you’re wearing a paired watch

As expected, Identity Check will only kick in when you’re outside a trusted location’s radius. If and when you attempt to access sensitive settings with a paired and unlocked watch strapped to your wrist, “you can use either biometrics or your PIN.” If you don’t have a paired watch, Identity Check will behave like it normally does by asking you to authenticate with your fingerprints or face.

In addition to code that clarifies wearables’ upcoming role within Identity Check, the same Play Services build also offers insight into what might one day be Identity Check “V2.” The supposed enhanced version of the feature might not be limited to just sensitive data and account settings, it might also encompass other apps that use biometrics. “Over time, Identity Check may add more ways to verify it’s you and secure apps on your device,” reads a subsequent string.

While the companion wearable feature for Identity Check could arrive fairly soon, the V2 expansion could take a little bit longer to materialize.