Unlocking your phone with a pin or pattern is time consuming, and the use of Smart Lock has increased since it was introduced. The options for Smart Lock have decreased by one apparently with Google removing the ‘Trusted Places’ option.

Trusted Places was a security option introduced in 2014 which let your phone remain in an unlocked state while you were at a location – work, home, gym etc. The feature wasn’t perfect with users reporting issues with it working intermittently or failing completely. Google initially said they’d be fixing it, but according to Android Police, it’s instead been removed.

With Trusted Places now removed you have only four options in Smart Lock available now. The Trusted Devices option – which uses connected Bluetooth devices – like earphones or your Android Wear watch – to detect you’re nearby is possibly one of the better ones, but you can also choose from on-body detection or more biometric based options like Trusted Face (face recognition) or Voice Match (it recognises your voice print).

Google hasn’t actually said the feature has been removed, and has been known to bring broken features back once fixed, so hopefully that will happen, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Via: Android Police.

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    chris

    Having blinding fast facial recognition and finger print reader I no longer need this feature. The OP5 is awesome at unlocking for me.

    Xavier

    Looks like Trusted Places is back and working just as it was before (must be one of the lucky ones who CAN get it to work!)
    I did notice before Google took it off that it didn’t work for about a few days.

    FYI – running Android P Beta – Google Pixel 2 XL

    Scott

    I used to use Smart Lock, specifically with the Trusted Places and Trusted Devices option all the time and loved it, but since I’ve had quick (instant really) fingerprint scanners on my last three phones, I’ve made the conscious decision to turn it off on my newest phone and I admit I haven’t missed it one bit. The extra security of not having the ability for someone to get their way into my phone with essentially not disadvantage by using the fingerprint scanner is worth it IMO