An electronic lock is the easiest way to ensure the safety of your phone. The principle of its operation is very simple - a password is set for all applications, after which only the one who knows these cherished numbers can launch them.
Thanks to this, you don’t have to worry about someone else gaining access to your VKontakte account or your bank’s app. Such programs work best in combination with screen lockers (lockscreens). This provides double protection.
App Lock by DoMobile
App Lock from DoMobile Lab can perform basic tasks such as blocking certain software, data transfer via WiFi, blocking access to photos and videos. There is protection from deletion, fingerprint support, disable incoming calls.
You can select any photos or videos on your phone that you want to hide from prying eyes. Also, the developers recently added an anonymous browser that does not save your browsing history.
There are two more cool features - blocking by time and location. The first will turn on protection during a specified period of time, for example at night when you sleep, and the second function will turn on protection when you are in a certain place, for example, only at work or at home.
Now you can safely let your friends watch a video on YouTube and not worry that they will unnoticed open your correspondence in VK. The application will not take up much space in the memory of your Android phone, as it weighs only 2.5 MB.
App Lock by IvyMobile
AppLock can block almost any program on your smartphone, as well as system applications such as calls, settings and gallery. After all, we may have personal photos and videos that we don’t want anyone to see.
In an era where social media communication is something we do every hour, it is important to keep your correspondence safe, and this app is ideal for setting a password for all social networks such as VKontakte, Telegram and Whatsapp.
The Fake Cover feature will allow you to hide the presence of App Lock by showing a different icon instead if you don’t want others to know you’re using it. For example, if you choose the Clock icon, no one will know what app it really is. This is especially useful because sometimes people try to uninstall such apps first to remove the protection, but this feature allows you to avoid that threat.
Even if someone tries to look over your shoulder when you enter your password, AppLock will prevent them from remembering it by displaying a random keyboard on the screen. And the Inturyer selfies feature will allow you to take a selfie of the person trying to guess the password.
Since not everyone likes to enter a PIN code all the time, there is a stop function that allows you to unlock apps with one click.
Perfect App Lock
Perfect App Lock is not perfect, but it has its good sides. The application is very fast and protection starts instantly, while some competitors start more than a second. It can show fake error messages every time the user tries to open a blocked application. The attacker will think that the problem is related to the application itself, and not to the presence of such protection.
What's unusual is that there's a fake fingerprint scanner installed here, which seems to protect the real lock screen. After "scanning your fingerprint," re-launch the program to see the real lock screen for entering the PIN code.
Additional options include Stealth Mode, which hides the presence of protection on the phone and the function of individual brightness settings for all applications. Blocking by time and WiFi access point is supported. The program requires administrator rights (not Android root rights) so that outsiders cannot delete it.
The downside is the disgustingly intrusive advertising that appears at the most inopportune times and even on the lock screen itself. Fortunately, it can be removed by purchasing the paid version.
Smart AppLock
Smart AppLock will lock your applications and photos, settings and protect against data copying. All data will be securely saved. The program can disguise itself as a lockscreen to confuse the intruder.
There is an autostart after reboot, a warning about hacking (a photo of the criminal is automatically sent by e-mail) and a fingerprint scanner. The program is distributed free of charge, the developers earn money on advertising. The disadvantage is that Smart AppLock is quite easy to remove after detection, but despite this, the application is already used by more than 20 million people.
Vault
Vault – an application with quite a rich functionality. In addition to programs, it can also block SMS, photos, videos, contacts, call logs and other information. In addition, it has a built-in browser for anonymous surfing. Data backup to a cloud service is supported. Vault can work in hidden mode and warn the device owner about hacking.
Norton App Lock
Norton is a big name when it comes to antivirus apps, but the developers behind this company do other things, too. This time, they have introduced a free tool for setting a password for apps. This is done using a 4-digit PIN, alphanumeric password, or pattern. Like a number of other similar programs, Norton automatically takes a photo of the person trying to guess the password.
Norton makes recommendations on which apps it thinks are worth blocking. Just click the button in the top right corner and select “Block recommended apps” to block them all, but you can choose for yourself, of course.
It is worth noting that Norton App Lock It is better not to use it on a weak smartphone, because it takes a little less than a second to work, which means that if you hide some photos, another user can see them for a second. So, the faster your phone works, the better the protection will work. On powerful smartphones, this should not be a problem.
I also tested the "parental control" by selecting one of the games on the "List" page, then deleting the game, reinstalling it, and trying to launch it - Norton App Lock still remembered that the game was restricted and did not allow it to be launched without entering the password. So it is not possible to bypass the protection this way.