My Pixel 7 Pro got stolen at a busy beach, and I couldn’t track it because thieves turned it off without needing my PIN. That killed Find My Device right away. Google’s phone misses a basic safety feature that could help find stolen devices.
Other brands like Samsung, Nothing, OnePlus, OPPO (and realme), and vivo have a simple switch. It makes you enter your PIN to turn off the phone. Nothing calls it “Power Off Verify.” OnePlus says “Require password to power off.” Samsung has it in “Lock network and security.”
Vivo uses “Unlock to Power Off.” You find these in settings like Security or Lock screen. They don’t stop a forced restart (hold power + volume for 10 seconds), but they make quick shutdowns harder.
https://x.com/AndroidAuth/status/2020083674755080629
Pixel fans have asked Google for this many times on forums. Google says no because smart thieves hide phones in metal bags to block signals. But not every thief thinks that far ahead this could stop some.
Pixels have cool unique features and clean Android, but they lag here. Newer Pixels (8 and up) can track even when off, which is great. My Pixel 7 can’t do that. A test by another writer showed it doesn’t always work well anyway.
Not all brands have powered-off tracking. Samsung and Nothing don’t. But phones like realme GT8 Pro, new OnePlus 13, and Xiaomi 15 do. Xiaomi also lets you turn off without PIN, like Pixel.
A PIN-to-turn-off option would help old and new Pixels. It’s too late for my phone, but it adds one more wall against thieves. Android protects your data well, but finding the phone is key too. Google should add this soonmaybe in Android 17.
