Monday, August 1, 2016

Notifying Android users natively when devices are added to their account to keep them secure

Google offers useful and simple-to-use security features such as 2-Step Verification and Single Sign-On in order to protect users who connect to their accounts on multiple devices. One equally important component in keeping users secure is educating them on what’s happening with their accounts in real-time.

That’s why today, we’re pleased to release a new feature that notifies Android users of security events on their account: Android notifications for newly added devices.

Here’s how it works

When users add a new device to their account, native Android notifications will tell the user about the newly added device or security event.

If the activity looks suspicious, the user can choose to “Review Account Activity,” and find out what device was added, from what location, and other important information. If the activity is expected, the user can dismiss it as any other notification.
Benefits

Now users are quickly notified on multiple devices when a new device has been added. 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.

We hope you find this security feature as useful as we do!


Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 14 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI


Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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