A little change in One UI 9 makes your Galaxy phone more secure

One UI 9.0 is a very small update compared to One UI 8.5 in terms of user-facing changes. However, small changes have been revealed since the update was released to the Galaxy S26 series a few days ago. One such small but profound change is the phone's behavior on the power menu.

When you access a phone's power menu in One UI 9.0, four options appear: Power Off, Restart, Emergency Call, Medical Info. While these options are exactly the same as One UI 8.5 and previous versions of One UI, what happens when you exit the power menu has changed. When you exit the power menu, the phone goes back to the lockscreen instead of the screen from where you accessed the power menu.

So, once you access the power menu, you have to know the phone's lockscreen PIN to use the phone again. This is likely to make it harder for anyone other than you to access the phone. If your phone is lost, stolen, or snatched off your hands, this change will make it harder for others to turn off your phone or access information on it.

It isn't clear if this change appeared with the first beta version of One UI 9 or its second beta version that was released to the Galaxy S26 series.