Google unveils Adiantum, a new form of encryption for data on lower-end smartphones and other devices with insufficient processing power
Google officially unveiled a new form of encryption today, designed to secure data stored on lower-end smartphones and other devices with insufficient processing power.
Context & Ripple Effects
Adiantum answers a gap Google itself created: under Marshmallow's default-encryption rule, phones only had to ship encrypted if their AES throughput exceeded 50 MiB/s — which quietly exempted the cheapest hardware from encryption entirely. Later moves like Nougat's file-based encryption narrowed the architecture gap, but critics still scored Google's lock-screen security as years behind iOS.
Adiantum is the piece that removes the hardware excuse: by substituting ChaCha12-based constructions for AES, it lets processors without dedicated crypto accelerators encrypt at usable speeds, extending the Pixel-class protections Google described in its Pixel 2 encryption work down the price curve.
First-order effects
- Budget Android manufacturers can now enable storage encryption on entry-level devices without paying for AES-capable silicon or eating a performance penalty — the unencrypted low end of the Android fleet becomes indefensible as a design choice.
Second-order effects
- Chip vendors lose one reason to differentiate entry-level SoCs with hardware crypto blocks, and Google gains ammunition in the standing comparison with iOS, where its lock-screen security has been judged years behind Apple's.
Third-order effects
- If Adiantum holds up cryptographically, encryption-by-default stops being a function of device price and extends naturally beyond phones to the broader population of weak, low-power devices — smart-home gear, wearables, embedded hardware — where AES acceleration was never economical.
The trend: Mobile encryption is shifting from a premium-hardware feature gated by crypto accelerators to a software guarantee Google extends across every price tier and device class.