Screen-off fingerprint unlock coming to a Pixel near you soon.gettyWith smartphones firmly in the crosshairs of attackers, be they hackers looking to compromise rooted devices, scammers employing deepfake threats, or hundreds of dangerous apps that can bypass security protections, securing your Android device has never been more critical. Anything that can make that task easier, therefore, has to be applauded. So, please put your hands together for the Android 16 fingerprint update that could revolutionize access security for all Google Pixel users. Heres what you need to know.The Surprise Fingerprint Security Update Coming To All Google Pixel UsersWhile it would be easy to focus on the threats from remote attackers, like those using infostealer malware steal your smartphone account passwords, or stolen session cookies that can bypass 2FA protections, ignoring the threat to your data from those with physical access to your Android phone would be a critical mistake. Be they a suspicious partner or an opportunistic thief, gaining access to your data is easy when you dont have lock screen protection. A long PIN or password is ideal, but not popular as it takes too much time to enter for many users. This is where biometrics come in, and for most Android users, that means fingerprints. But even then, theres a time-related obstacle that stops some users from deploying this defense: having to wake the screen before you can use it. A surprise new discovery by way of an Android 16 Beta update might just have solved that problem for Google Pixel users. All of them.The screen-off fingerprint unlock feature first appeared in the Android 16 developer preview 2 when it was seemingly limited to just the Google Pixel 9 series of smartphones. Bad luck for anyone owning an older Google Pixel who thought that they might deserve the same security protections offered by enabling the fingerprint unlock function to work even if the screen is off. Now, according to the always reliable Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority, the release of Android 16 Beta 3 has surprisingly corrected this omission and made the screen-off fingerprint unlock feature available to all Google Pixel users as long as they have the under-display scanner. So, thats everything from the Google Pixel 6 on but excluding foldables.As long as you have installed the Android 16 Beta 3 update, Google Pixel users can enable the feature right now by heading to Settings|Security & privacy|Device unlock|Face & Fingerprint Unlock|Fingerprint Unlock and enabling the screen-off option in the when using fingerprint unlock configuration section.