Following on-body detection that will unlock once the device is held in hand or kept in the pocket, Google seems to have been working on a new option that will be added to Smart Lock in Android. The firm has started rolling out this new option called Trusted Voice to several users of the platform that lets them to unlock their Android device by saying “Ok Google”.
During the set up of Trusted Voice, a warning pops up claiming that this feature is less secure than the password, pattern or PIN locks as it will unlock the device if someone with a similar voice or a recording of the user’s voice can also unlock the device.
This feature makes use of the “Ok Google” voice command that most of the users feed in their phones for using Google voice search. For now, the complete details of this remain unknown, but it should be having more capabilities than the unlocking mechanism.
It looks like this Trusted Voice feature will be an extension of “Ok Google” hotword to the locked and inactive devices. Previously, the voice command was used when the screen was turned on, but it was to be selected in the settings.
As of now, there is no clear picture on when the Trusted Voice feature will be officially announced by Google. Anyways, it supports only the Android Lollipop based devices as Smart Lock is meant for this platform only.
