Over the last few years, Smartphone security became more important than ever before. Since smartphones are an integral part of modern life, they should be given the utmost importance to keep data safe. Now, the newly launched Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 smartphones have received the Android Enterprise Recommended and ioXt certifications.
For enterprise customers, Google created the Android Enterprise Recommended program to certify devices that have passed hardware and software requirements. Speaking of the ioXt certification, the certified devices will also include smart lights, smart speakers, webcams, and more.
Pixel 4a 5G & Pixel 5 Get Android Enterprise Recommended & ioXt certifications
In August this year, the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4 series became the first smartphones to receive the ioXt certification. For smartphones running on the newly released Android 11, Google made ioXt certification compulsory for making it to the Android Enterprise Recommended list.
The ioXt Alliance is a group of manufacturers, industry alliances, and government organizations. Currently, there are over 200 members including Google, Amazon, Facebook, T-Mobile, Comcast, Zigbee Alliance, Legrand, and others. The alliance looks after the security compliance assessment program for connected devices in the age of the Internet of Things.
Just like any other certification program, there are specific requirements to meet to get ioXt certified. For the smartphones to be certified under the Android profile, they should be running on Android OS and should support GMS (Google Mobile Services) or equivalent.
Expect all future Pixel smartphones also to be ioXt certified
The ioXt alliance will evaluate the Android smartphones on multiple factors, including the strength of biometric authentication, frequency of security update, length of security support commitment, vulnerability disclosure program quality, and preloaded app risk minimization.
Both the Pixel smartphones come with a rear-facing fingerprint scanner for biometric authentication. There is also a custom-built Titan M security chip to prevent malicious attacks and tampering with the code. Apart from the decent hardware and 5G support, the clean Android experience can also be a major highlight of these newly launched Pixel smartphones.
Moreover, the company offers at least three years of software support for its Pixel smartphones. These are also one of the first smartphones to receive monthly security patch updates. Notably, Google also confirmed that all Pixel smartphones launching in the coming years will be also submitted for ioXt certification.
Since the new Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 came with Android 11 out of the box, both these devices are eligible for at least three more major Android OS updates.