{"id":900621,"date":"2026-09-21T23:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/900621\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T23:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T23:18:14","slug":"ios-27-2-beta-reveals-iphone-anti-theft-autolock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/900621\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS 27.2 beta reveals iPhone anti-theft AutoLock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple is testing an iPhone<\/a> security feature designed to recognize snatch-and-grab theft and lock the device before the thief can exploit it. <\/p>\n

There’s a name for snatching someone’s smartphone from their hands in a brazen theft attempt: Apple picking. And Apple’s been working on a way of protecting its customers from the act. <\/p>\n

In May<\/a>, it was learned that Apple had been working on a new set of security features that will automatically lock an iPhone when it detects that it’s been snatched from its owner’s hands. Now, the new iOS 27.2<\/a> Beta 2 gives us a better look at what that entails. <\/p>\n

The feature, spotted by<\/a> 9to5Mac, is called “AutoLock” internally, and it uses multiple signals to determine whether or not the device has been taken from its owner. This includes <\/p>\n

Sudden, sharp acceleration
\nA paired Apple Watch<\/a> remaining unreachable
\nLoss of connection to a paired Apple Watch
\nProlonged loss of network connectivitgy
\nThe device remaining unlocked beyond a certain interval<\/p>\n

Of course, any one of these could theoretically give a false positive, so Apple is also working on safeguards to prevent errant lockdowns. These could include biometric authentication, app activity, and a backoff mechanism that suppresses locks after lock events. <\/p>\n

As 9to5Mac mentions, the feature is still in the works. Users on the iOS 27.2 beta 2 cannot access the feature for testing. <\/p>\n

Instead, Apple has enabled the feature in the background and chosen to keep the actual locking component disabled. This may be Apple’s way of gathering data to further test the feature. <\/p>\n

Apple has good reason to keep working on anti-theft features, too. In places like London, iPhones have become particularly attractive targets<\/a> for thieves, with some criminals going so far as to reject Android devices in favor of Apple’s more lucrative hardware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple is testing an iPhone security feature designed to recognize snatch-and-grab theft and lock the device before the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,63,203,105],"class_list":["post-900621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}