As a new feature to its Google Account service, Google said it would now alert users via their smartphone or tablet when new devices are added to their accounts.
One of the benefits of associating devices with an online account is that users can track multiple phones, tablets, and other mobile devices from a single place. The new Android notification for newly added devices will improve the security of Google accounts, the Internet giant says.
The new feature is pretty straightforward: every time a new device is added to a Google account, a native Android notification will be displayed to inform on the newly added device or security event.
By keeping users informed on what is happening with their accounts in real time, Google expects to keep them better secured: because of these notifications, users can detect suspicious activity when it happens. However, should the activity be expected, users can dismiss the notification as they would in any other case.
When security incidents happen, users can choose to “Review Account Activity,” which allows them to find out what device was added to their account. They can also view details such as the location where the device was added from, along with other important information.
These notifications will pop up on all devices that the user has added to the account, which should increase chances that security incidents don’t go unnoticed.
“This increases transparency to the user of what actions they’ve performed and allows them to flag any suspicious activity they may be seeing on the device. We’ve also found that with Android notifications, users are up to four times as likely to review the information as compared to email notifications,” Google notes in a blog post.
The new feature is launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release and will see a gradual rollout, meaning that it might take more than 14 days for it to become available in some cases. All Android users will benefit from this security enhancement, Google says.
Just last month, Google announced another security enhancement for its mobile users, in the form of new 2-Step Verification that allows them to login on a computer by simply tapping a notification that appears on their mobile phones.
Related: Google Patches Tens of Critical Vulnerabilities in Android
