President Trump Ditches Android Device For A More Secure Smartphone

President-elect Donald Trump likes to send his tweets from an Android phone, but he’s carrying a new, secure device issued to him by the United States Secret Service, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Trump is only the second President of the smartphone era so it’s difficult to say the switch is based on precedent, but President Barack Obama did make the switch from his personal device to a BlackBerry that was heavily modified to ensure its security.

Not much is known about the incoming President’s new device—its existence was confirmed to the Associated Press by a friend of Trump. It could be assumed from Obama’s experience with the locked down devices that the functionality will be limited.

When Obama received his BlackBerry, most of the features were blocked and inaccessible and only a select few had the contact information to call or email the device. He later switched to an iPhone that could be used to browse the internet and read the news, but was still considerably stripped down from the standard smartphone.

"For security reasons—this is a great phone, state-of-the-art—but it doesn't take pictures, you can't text, the phone doesn't work, you can't play your music on it," Obama said of the device during an appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2016 before comparing the phone to a “play phone” for three-year-olds.

Such a device would mark a considerable change for Trump, who is used to having his phone accessible at all hours and being easy to get in contact with. Following his election, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull got Trump's cellphone number from professional golfer Greg Norman.

The New York Times reported world leaders were "blindly dialing in to Trump Tower" to reach the President-elect, and many of the calls were taken on unsecured lines like his personal phone.

Trump also has a habit of texting directly from his device. Much was made of a series of tweets the then-candidate sent out between the hours of 3:20 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. attacking his opponent Hillary Clinton and former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, though it is far from the only middle-of-the-night tweet to be fired off from Trump’s preferred Android device.

Twitter access will likely be restricted on Trump’s secured smartphone, though Obama did have access to a device that allowed him to tweet—a feature he used much more sparingly than his successor likely will.

The Newseum, a museum in Washington D.C. that chronicles evolution of print and electronic communication, reportedly reached out to the Trump campaign in November about acquiring the incoming President’s Android phone. The museum is yet to receive a response to its request.