You’re on the couch watching TV and you get a notification. It’s a WhatsApp message in your family group. You unlock the phone, answer, lock. After 30 seconds, it happens again. Maybe it’s the same band, maybe it’s a different one. Maybe it’s Facebook. Anyway, interacting with the mobile is something that we do very often and although there are systems to unlock it easily, the truth is that repetition makes a whole process tedious. Heavy.
But there are ways to avoid this, to make everything infinitely more bearable without giving up the security that our data is protected behind an unlock pattern, behind a digital code or behind our fingerprint or face. If we are in a safe and trustworthy place, we can make our mobile not constantly ask us for the password. This, on Android, is called ‘Smart Lock’ and we’ll show you what it’s for.
Forget the password when you are “safe”
As we said before, we are going to show you how ‘Smart Lock’ works. ‘Smart Lock’ is a native tool on Android
The iPhone allows us to skip security if we have a watch, on Android it is a customizable function
If we were in the field of iOS, for example, iPhone and iPad, this unlocking of confidence would have to go through having an Apple Watch and that in turn was unlocked. The iPhone would detect that the Watch is next and it would say goodbye to the PIN. In the case of Android, the system is much more open and is not limited to a single type of device. ‘Smart Lock’ also works with trusted places. It is even able to detect that we carry the mobile phone with us, for example if we are exercising.
‘Smart Lock’ is present in our Android, as we said, and we can find it in the ‘Security’ section of the ‘Settings’ of the mobile phone. Some manufacturers modify the path slightly, but we usually find it located more or less in the same area. On a Google Pixel, for example, it’s in Settings > Security > Advanced Settings > Smart Lock
-
Body detection: By activating this option, our Android deactivates password authentication or other methods if it detects that we are on the move. For example, if we walk. This is very useful if we do sports outside and wear the mobile in a bracelet, since unlocking it there is very difficult. Android will recognize the case and we will be able to interact with the mobile simply by turning on the screen. Tip: if we combine this with the double tap on the screen, it is much better.
-
Trusted sites: By activating this option, Android will be able to recognize the site on which we use geolocation using other features such as connection to certain wireless networks. If we told Android that our home is a “trusted place”, we wouldn’t have to use the PIN, pattern or fingerprint unless we went out. At home, it will be enough to turn on the screen to be able to interact with the mobile.
-
Trusted devices: This is the last option of ‘Smart Lock’ but one of the most important. This is where you choose which device, or its presence, allows Android to bypass the first security cordon. For example, when we have certain Bluetooth headphones connected or when we have a certain smartwatch. Maybe when we are connected to the car, something works on vehicle routes. Just click “Select Device” to choose the ones you trust. So, as long as they are on and connected to the mobile, Android will make sure to give us access to the screen.
All these tools integrated in ‘Smart Lock’ will allow us to avoid having to repeatedly enter the PIN code, pattern or put our finger on the fingerprint reader. But be careful, it must be configured if we are sure that these facilities to unlock the mobile will not cause us any security breaches. Because if our cell phone allows us to bypass security when we’re in the car, anyone who gets into our car with our cell phone in hand will be able to access our phone. Be careful.
