Securing Your Digital Delicates

App Lockers For Everyone

But what if you want to hide those applications from view? Or what if you don’t necessarily want to hide a whole application but rather select files or photos? The short answer is that you can do both, but the process is disjointed and messy. Hiding applications on the latest versions of OxygenOS requires swiping in from the left of the app drawer to access the Hidden Space where you can swap in or out applications you want hidden from the launcher. In order to hide select files and photos you’ll have to jump into the stock Files app on the OnePlus device and setup the folder called Secure Box. From within the Files app you can then select individual files and select the overflow menu button and select Set As Secure. It’s important to note that what OnePlus is doing here is only hiding these files by moving them to a folder that applications will ignore and treat as hidden, but these files can still be found in third-party file managers with just a dash of savvy. In other words ‘secure’ is a bit of a misnomer.

It’s with this same button that you’ll add the apps you’d like left behind lock-and-key. Once you’ve added these applications to the Locker you’ll be presented with authentication requests when the applications are launched, but if you’d prefer to remove the temptation of digging through your stuff altogether you can also opt to have all of the applications placed in the Locker be hidden from the Blackberry launcher by selecting the settings icon in the top right of the Locker and selecting Hide Private Apps. Now the only way to find the applications will be to either use mapped keyboard shortcuts or to dig through the Locker first, at which point you’ll be greeted with an authentication request. You can even opt to hide the Locker similarly. Grouping these features together simplifies things and it’s what I’d prefer to see OnePlus do in the future.

There’s a couple of bonus features that pertain to adding photos directly to the Private Gallery and bypassing the stock Gallery. The remaining option of that ‘+’ button will allow you to enter Private Capture which launches an instance of the camera application that sends all photos directly to the Locker which is great, but even more handy is the ability to tap (not press) the spacebar when in the standard camera app to send photos straight to the Locker on the sly.

The first of which is the fact that you can add applications and accounts directly to the Secure Folder that don’t exist elsewhere on the device. Photos taken with the camera application within the Secure Folder save securely by default, as do notes taken within the Samsung Notes application. Applications already installed elsewhere on your device can also be duplicated in order to run separate accounts side-by-side, and by keeping these things all together Samsung has increased the likelihood that people will take advantage of them.

If this is starting to sound like a mounting liability you also have the option of digging into the overflow menu button and selecting options to either disguise the icon with Customize Icon or hide the application altogether in the Security and Fingerprint settings.

To get started you merely need to head into Settings, drill down into the Security and Privacy, and enable PrivateSpace. From here you’ll setup your fallback password as well as biometric authentication and once you’re all set you’ll be able to start using it. In order to access PrivateSpace you can actually launch it from the lockscreen by entering either the specific password or fingerprint you set it up with and, instead of unlocking to the MainSpace as usual, it will unlock straight to your PrivateSpace.

If you were hoping for a simpler solution that just hides your files or locks individual apps EMUI has you covered there as well. Within that same Security and Privacy section you’ll also find an option aptly titled App lock and it’s as straightforward as the namesake implies. You simply lock what you’d rather went unseen. For encrypting files you’ll find a File Safe heading in the default file manager that behaves similarly to OnePlus’ Secure Box. As a fun bonus users are able to setup multiple folders with distinct authentication methods. Neat.

As for Xiaomi, MIUI has a nearly identical set of options that can be found in Huawei’s EMUI. The latest version of MIUI has everything centralized under the new Security application which makes finding all of these features a breeze. Xiaomi’s flavors of these features are located about midway down the list with App lock and Second space behaving in much the same way as Huawei’s App lock and PrivateSpace, respectively. If you need to hide files on your MIUI device you’ll head to the file manager and begin to pull down on the list of options as if attempting to refresh the application. At this point you’ll be presented with a lockable hidden folder option that isn’t readily findable within the file manager unless you know where to look.

Upon marking the first user selected applications to lock you’ll be asked to give permissions for the applications to draw over apps and monitor usage. The former is how these app lockers prevent unsecured access to locked applications and the latter is how they register that a given application has been launched. If your sole concern is to thwart the overly curious friend or family member these app lockers will likely do the trick, but their method of drawing over apps isn’t perfectly seamless and it provides a window for the more determined out there to root around.

AppLock, while so thoroughly customizable that it puts OEM offerings to shame, lags considerably upon launching a locked application which allows users a brief opportunity to glimpse all of the most recent information. Worse yet it gives someone a healthy window to uninstall AppLock altogether, rendering your applications completely unsecured.

By contrast Norton App Lock is a streamlined application that aims to live up to its name and little more, but as a result it boasts a much faster reaction to a locked application’s launch, successfully obfuscating recent data more often. Unfortunately it too falls victim to enough lag that uninstalling against your wishes is entirely too easy.

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