Anyone who stores passwords in Android will soon be informed if that password has surfaced in a known data breach.
The feature comes in Android 9 and newer versions. It concerns Password Checkup, a feature that has long been in a separate password manager from Google, which is now fully integrated into Android.
In concrete terms, this means that when you have a password automatically entered by Google, Google automatically compares the password with a database of known leaked passwords. If it shows up there, you will get a warning, and it is recommended to change it.
Such a warning is not new; Apple, among others, has been offering it since iOS 14. But the most famous player undoubtedly has been Pwned, Troy Hunt’s website that has indexed data breaches for years to inform users if and where their email address or password may have been leaked.
The adaptation for Android comes with a few other new features. For example, in the Messages app (not to be confused with the messaging app for text messages), it is possible to send a reply at a specific time.