Google Shows Your Recent Sign-ins

There's a new section in the Google Account settings page: recent activity. Google shows a list of recent sign-ins and other security-related actions, with information about the browser, device, IP address and approximate location.


The feature seems similar to Gmail's account activity feature, but it's not. Gmail's feature shows information about about recent activity, whether it's from a browser or an email client, and it's only limited to Gmail. Google's new recent activity feature shows "security-related actions you've taken, like signing in to your Google Account, changing your password, or adding a recovery email address or phone number. This information is for your entire Google Account, so sign-ins from any Google product (such as Blogger, Gmail, or YouTube) will be listed in this section."

There's a subtle difference: "A sign-in is only listed when you've actually typed your username and password to sign in. For example, if you've been signed in to your account for several weeks on your phone, checking your email from time to time, we'll only list the time and location of your initial sign-in." That's not the case for Gmail's account activity feature, which is not limited to the initial sign-ins.

In other related news, Google has a new security dashboard that shows information about your password, recovery options, notifications for unusual activity, 2-step verification and connected applications/sites.


{ Thanks, Florian K. and Herin. }