The next version of the Google's Android operating system, the Android L due to be released in October, will for the first time be encrypting data by default.
The move by Google will provide an additional layer of security on the personal and highly sensitive data that users typically have on their smartphones.
Android, the most popular mobile operating system in the world, has been offering encryption options for some devices since 2011. However, the options are not on by default, with security experts saying that only a handful of users know about the feature, much less to turn it on.
Google is tweaking the activation procedure for Android L so that encryption is automatically activated, with the smartphone requiring a password before the communications, pictures, videos and other data contained within it can be accessed.
Google's announcement for the added security features of the Android comes after Apple announced that it is expanding its two-factor authentication process to include the iCloud storage system, which was recently attacked by a hacker that was able to extract nude pictures of certain celebrities.
With the moves of Google and Apple, both companies that own the top two mobile operating systems now have a kind of encryption for the added protection of users.
"As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won't even have to think about turning it on," said Niki Christoff, a spokeswoman for Google.
Industry experts that have been advocating for changes in how Google and Apple are dealing with security issues are ecstatic, as users will now obtain protections on their privacy without any additional effort from their end.
"It's so awesome, as someone who has worked on these issues for a long time, to see these two companies switch their defaults to where these things will be strongly encrypted, and rightly so," said Center for Democracy & Technology chief technologist Joseph Lorenzo Hall.
It may be simple for Apple to send out the iOS 8, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system that includes the added security measures, to all users with iOS devices because the update can be started with a tap on the touchscreen. Google, however, will find it hard to deliver Android L to all Android users.
Android suffers from defragmentation, wherein hundreds of different versions of the Android OS are found in devices worldwide, due to the fact that several manufacturers are making devices with different versions of Android. Many of these devices have Android OS versions that are years old, exposing the devices to security issues.
