Doesn't your bank need 2 sets of creds to log in? Mine does.

also, i like my phone to be fast. If i wanted my phone just be a cheap thing, i'd buy a second hand google flagship from 3 years ago and flash with custom rom.

With my phone being high end, comes the risk of theft, like with virtually anything high end (watches, ice, etc)

On the other hand I like that my phone does those things and don't want it to be sellable in the event that someone decides to steal it.

I used to work on phones, it was so great getting to help design these pocket computers the way I wanted to use them. I honestly saw the future being something like, "ok, cloud is a bit of a trust reach, but on the other hand, your phone becomes a cheap access terminal." I assumed we'd hit a point, with how cheap the hardware inside the machine is, (to this day) where phones would ostensibly become something you could grab from a vending machine. They'd eventually become highly recyclable so you could just take an old phone and chuck it in a recycling bin to have the parts repurposed/recycled.

"Oh crap, my phone just fell out of my pocket and got run over!" Go to vending machine, chuck old phone in recycling, log in to new phone, old phone is nuked remotely if it still functions, new phone starts caching your "phone". You're back in business in minutes.

Phones would have no value to be stolen, phones are accessible to all walks of life, a fairness of technology access helps balance the world.

None of that happened, instead, it was a war of walled gardens, information hoarding, privacy violations, expense, distrust, and loan pyramid schemes so people can dump $1500 on $50-$200 worth of parts that will probably just end up being stolen and sold in aftermarket/underground markets in countries that are less well-off.

I'm kinda irked I ever tried to work on the tech to make lives better and do not regret my choice to not go back to that industry.

💯

It's good for the common user who's happy to use all Google services and can remember (or has written down) their credentials.

It's absolutely useless for those out of the Google ecosystem

It's annoying through to disastrous for people supporting other peoples' phones

Assumed as much without opening article

Isn't that the way with almost every tech introduced into phones? "Track your phone while off (for arbitrary unit of time)" = you're tracked by any Bluetooth beacon networks whether you want to or not. Also, "you're now part of a beacon network whether you want to or not."

Any 911/safety feature is just a reach for more tracking/stalking.

You get to contribute to traffic and wifi mapping so the company gets free telemetry they can use for whatever they please at the expense of your battery.

We'll introduce notifications and then not give the user enough control, so notifications can become malicious nags to get you to look at your phone as often as possible.

We'll introduce app stores that become gamified by the app devs, that push updates weekly or more frequently. The changes? Nothing, the dev just wants to reset the ranking of reviews and get the user to notice their app again for more user engagement, meanwhile, burning out your flash with every pointless update.

Oh, shoot, people are using phones too much, we'll introduce "night filters" that only partially filter out blue light, and then let you feel ok about using your phone all night instead of sleeping.

Reckless transmission of telemetry from every app, which often have some blanket permissions to reach into your phone and extrapolate what other apps are there, characteristics of your phone to fingerprint. If you've ever used an app tracker blocker like 1Blocker on iOS or NextDNS or DuckDuckGo App Tracking Protection on Android, you'll see some apps are spatic about gathering and transmitting telemetry. (Worse, some just start firing telemetry attempts at insane levels, like thousands an hour, if they can't connect to the Internet, further depleting your battery.)

If you ever spin up an OS like Graphene that has all this telemetry junk removed, you'll be surprised to find out that your phone's battery can last days. That's an actual useful powerful feature to have, runtime. And instead of having switches like in iOS to "only charge when you're charging off green energy" you're being more green by only having to charge your phone every 3-5 days. The charge/discharge cycles are also reduced, so your battery is now lasting years instead of 12-18 months.

Doesn't do much.

Only your carrier would honor it, maybe even all carriers in your country, but they'll ship it off to some other country and the phone would still work (might be missing a few bands, but still fuctional).

The only way for it to actually deter theft is for the entire device to essentially become a brick unless unlocked.

The idea itself is a good thing. The only bad thing about FRP is that it's online-based instead of a local-lock.

That assumes it's attached to a carrier. I had a phone stolen out of the mail.

Same as Apple: total platform control. Like HP and printer ink.

Some carriers/MVNOs won't allow that request (Fi, Orange, US Cellular, etc.)

Someone tries too many times to unlock it with the wrong pin or pattern; someone tries to factory reset it with the wrong pin or pattern

You could just read the article. It is pretty straightforward and doesn't require any spyware or profiling as others have suggested.

Spyware. Tracking. Extensive databases. Sneakily active mics and cameras. SIM cards requiring phone numbers tied to government issued ID. Security cameras. Smart home. Facial recognition. Fingerprints. Been incarcerated? DNA.

They fingerprint your residence, and general location in the first day.

If you want security and at the same time want to be able to identify your device if stolen, just scratch your name into the back. Or paint it with a marker. Or whatever

Google has hardware they control. Other OEMs can choose to make it available. It's up to them to implement.