Advanced Protection on One UI 8 Gets Smarter with App Awareness

With Android 16, Google made it simpler to secure your smartphone at a system level. It introduced an Advanced Protection mode, which activates several security features across device safety, apps, networks, web, and more. The company is now taking that protection a step further, giving apps the ability to know when Advanced Protection is enabled and adjust their own security measures accordingly.

Android 16’s Advanced Protection gets more advanced

Advanced Protection, which Samsung integrated into One UI 8, protects your Galaxy phone against online attacks, harmful apps, insecure connections, and other threats that put your data at risk. The latest Play Services update now adds a new page that shows users which apps have requested access to their device’s Advanced Protection state.

As reported by Android Authority, apps can then use the information to activate additional safety layers, such as stricter authentication or limited access to sensitive data. At the time, only Google’s first-party apps like Phone, Messages, and Chrome appear to be using this data. These integrations make sense, as they directly tie into the system’s broader security framework.

However, third-party apps could soon join the mix, potentially bringing better protection to browsers, messaging platforms, and password managers. This would allow users to see which apps are checking their protection status and manage privacy at a deeper level. It also encourages developers to build smarter, context-aware security measures that respond dynamically to user settings.

Currently, the new Advanced Protection apps page has been spotted only on a handful of devices. It’s rolling out via the October 2025 Play Services update, so it could take a while to reach more devices. On Galaxy devices, you can check its availability by navigating to Settings > Google > All Services > Advanced Protection. You should see an “Apps that checked for device protection” option at the bottom.