Thanks to the QPR1 update for Android 15, Google Chrome on Android may become much more secure. Even at critical moments when your phone has already been stolen.

Based on a new “idcheck” flag that browser expert Leopeva64 found in Chromium Gerrit, it seems very likely that Google will introduce an identity checking tool for Chrome for Android. This is Chromium's online code review hub, the codebase used to build the Chrome browser we all know and love.

Mishaal Rahmam and Android Authority investigated further and found that when users try to access payment methods, cross-device sync settings, and incognito mode away from the trusted location set up on their device, this flag is used to prevent Identity Check was found to be enabled.

Identity Check was recently announced as a new security measure that requires biometric authentication to change critical Android settings such as PINs; PINs and passwords can be cracked, brute-forced, or “shoulder surfed” ( fingerprint scan or facial recognition scan) is required if this feature is enabled, as it is much easier to learn via “watching you enter a code before swiping your phone.

Unfortunately, Identity Check for Chrome seems to be limited to devices running Android 15 QPR1 All devices that support Android 15 are QPR1 (stands for Quarterly Platform Release 1). update, but will not be offered to those with older phones running Android 14 or earlier versions.

As an app, Chrome is closely tied to your Google account, which is where you often log into important websites and shop online. As such, it is a prime target for thieves, as is the hardware on smartphones. Therefore, adding this biometric security system is a smart way to make it more difficult for thieves and give the average user a sense of security.

This all fits in with the new Android-wide anti-theft system that Google introduced last week for devices running the 2019 Android 10 update or later. These focus primarily on what happens after your phone is taken away, with new features such as automatic locking if the phone determines it has been grabbed from your hand, and a remote locking feature that can be used to protect your phone from other devices.

If Identity Check from Chrome is indeed going to be part of QPR 1, it should appear around December of this year; support for the Android app itself may be provided before then, but for the system to work, server-side updates are also needed, so even if you downloaded a Chrome update every time it arrived, it would not be confirmed to work before then.