Recent Android releases have been focusing more on security aspects, and Android 16 has one major security feature called Advanced Protection. One of its upcoming features, USB Protection, may end up with an unintended side effect of forcing slow-speed charging, unless the smartphone is unlocked.
More Security Features For Android 16
To be clear, if you’re a regular user, you probably don’t need Advanced Protection. Per its blog, this feature is intended for high-profile and high-risk figures – think politicians, journalists, or public figures – to enable tighter security against targeted attacks. This is essentially a single flip switch that enables all security-related features in one go, and the feature set is still expanding.
As Android Authority reports, the upcoming USB Protection feature is designed to protect against malicious USB devices, and upon digging through the codes, it has been implied that when this feature is enabled, fast charging may not work in certain cases unless the smartphone is unlocked.
It is plausible that the reason behind this has to do with how fast charging protocols work. When USB Protection is enabled, all data communications is blocked by default to prevent brute-force attacks of the device’s lock screen; however, most fast charging protocols today require data communications to establish a proper voltage setting before the cable is allowed to deliver extra power to the device. When this is blocked, the cables essentially have to fall back to standard 5V input for charging.
In the grand scheme of things, this should be at best a minor inconvenience for users that require extra levels of protection; for regular users, existing protection measures built into Android 16 are pretty sufficient, so you probably don’t need to worry about this feature accidentally making your charging slower than usual.
Pokdepinion: At least this shouldn’t concern most users.
