If you want to know how to set a password to an app on either Android or iOS, you’ve come to the right place and we’re going to guide you step by step in this article.
Hopefully you’re already protecting your phone with a PIN, fingerprint or by visual recognition (or all three).
But sometimes you’ll want to add an additional barrier to certain apps, for example, if you leave your phone with a friend or if your kids or partner are always borrowing your phone for whatever reason.
How you want to apply this additional protection is up to you. Some phones come with it built-in; in other cases, you’ll have to enlist the help of a third-party app.
The process is also different depending on whether you’re using Android or iOS, so we’ve split our guide into two sections.
Table of Contents
Why put a password on a Mobile App?
Have you ever wanted to put access to certain apps on your phone or tablet under an extra layer of security.
There are all sorts of reasons why people might want this. Some examples are as follows.
1. Maybe you want to share your phone with a child, but you don’t want the nanny to mess with work apps or your adult Netflix account.
2. You’re afraid they can easily discover your unlock and want to keep apps like bank or dgt apps, etc. safe.
3. You want to let a sales colleague review a presentation on your phone without them having access to your contacts and potential customers.
4. Some people may have sensitive chats they want to keep safe from prying eyes, too.
5. Your wife, husband or partner asks for your cell phone and you have an app out there that can compromise you.
6. And a long etc, which depends on the individual and the level of tolerance for privacy or security you have.
Whatever your reason for wanting to protect specific apps, we have good news and bad news. First, the good news: On Android, there are apps for that.
The bad news: there’s no equivalent feature in Apple beyond the content restrictions found in Screen Time.
If this is something you want to do, you’ll need an Android device.
How to Password Protect an App on Android
The easiest way to password protect apps on an Android device is to add apps.
One of the best apps is AppLock. Since dozens of apps can now be found under this term, the free app has recently been renamed to “MAX AppLock – Privacy & App Lock”.
The free app can be quickly downloaded from the Google Play Store and offers versatile protection for your Android smartphone.
Once the app is installed, it can be used to specify exactly which app should be protected with an additional password and which apps should remain accessible without password lock.
In addition, AppLock offers an intelligent front camera lock. Each user can define after how many snap attempts the camera should be locked.
Another cool feature: the camouflage lock. The camouflage lock makes it appear to third parties that the called app has hung up.
In reality, however, all you have to do is enter your password and the app will work as usual.
Other options for password-protecting apps are the CM Security Antivirus Applock app from Cheetah Mobile or the Protect app (Smart AppLock) from Spsoft.
Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat in particular like to disguise themselves with this.
Other ways to protect Android devices and apps.
In addition to apps designed specifically for this purpose, there are other ways to protect Android devices from third-party access.
If you don’t want other users to have access to your main profile in the first place, you can secure your Android smartphone with a guest account.
To do this, go to “Settings”, “System” and then “Advanced”. There you will find the “Multiple users” button.
With a few clicks you can now create a guest account. Once the second account has been created, you can change the user with the notification bar displayed via the user symbol.
You can individually define what the guest can do with your smartphone.
For example, you can specify that the second user cannot make phone calls or send text messages.
You can also restrict access to the Google Play Store if desired.
With the guest account app, you can swipe your smartphone without hesitation and determine exactly what content is visible and what options the guest has, allowing safe use for friends and family.
You can now answer to a friend who asks you for example: “How to set password to Whatsapp” or “How to set password on Instagram”, among a multitude of other apps.
How to set a password to an App in iOS
The quickest and easiest way to set a password in iOS to an application is to enable the code that we will use for ‘Time in Use’.
For this we go to “Settings > Time in Use”, then below we click on “Use code for Time in Use” and we will follow the instructions to select a four-digit PIN.
After this we will have to choose between two options: block all applications or categories; or choose individual applications and follow the procedure.
Apple doesn’t give third-party apps as much leeway on iOS as Google does on Android, so you won’t find any general-purpose blocking tools in the App Store.
Instead, you rely on the individual apps themselves; many apps that may contain sensitive information will give you additional options.
Apple’s own Notes app for the iPhone is an example. You can lock individual notes by tapping the Share button (within a note) or by long-pressing on a note (in the note list) and then choosing Lock Note.
Notes are locked using Face ID, Touch ID or a PIN code, and you can set this up through Notes in the iOS Settings app.
WhatsApp also has protections to prevent prying eyes from getting into your messages.
From the main screen, you have to tap on Settings, Account, Privacy, and Screen Lock; you can then set up Touch ID or Face ID to protect access to your conversations.
If either of these methods fail, you’ll be returned to your phone’s lock screen passcode.
Another third-party app with this same security measure is Dropbox, which comes in handy if you don’t want your toddler to accidentally delete all your files with a reckless finger push.
Tap Account, then click on the cog icon (top left), then click on Enable passcode.
Once you’ve set a passcode, you’ll also be given the option to use Touch ID or Face ID.
We can’t walk you through all the iOS apps, but take a look at your favorites to see if an extra layer of security has been included.
Evernote, Amazon and PayPal are three other apps that can be locked with Touch ID or Face ID, and many banking apps now also have the same feature, so even if someone manages to access your phone (with or without your permission), they won’t be able to access all of your apps.
You have a couple of other tools you can turn to on iOS: They weren’t primarily intended to secure apps, but they can do the same job.
The first is Screen Time, which you can access from Settings: If you tap Use Screen Time Code to set an access code, then select App Limits and set an app’s daily limit to zero hours and zero minutes, you’ll effectively be blocking others from the app without the access code.
The second option is Guided Access, which you’ll find in the Accessibility menu of the settings. Once you’ve enabled it, open an app and press the side button or the home button three times; then you won’t be able to switch to any other app without entering the phone’s passcode.
This is ideal if you want to let one of the kids play a game, but don’t want them to venture into other apps.
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