Take the hassle out of Android lock screens
USE LOLLIPOP’S SMART LOCK FEATURE TO SKIP THE LOCK SCREEN WHEN IT ISN’T NEEDED.
“MY PREFERRED METHOD OF SMART UNLOCK IS USING A BLUETOOTH DEVICE — LARGELY BECAUSE MY PEBBLE SMART WATCH IS JUST ABOUT ALWAYS CONNECTED TO MY PHONE.”
GIVEN THE AMOUNT of sensitive data that your phone holds and can access, keeping your device locked with a PIN, password, or pattern is now a must. But, while I understand the importance of keeping my device locked, I also dislike having to squiggle my security pattern on the screen every time I want to access my phone. So for years now I’ve been using Tasker to disable the lock pattern when I’m at home, or while my Pebble watch is connected.
Since Lollipop, however, that functionality has been baked in to the OS — it’s now called Smart Lock — making it a little more reliable, and lot easier to set up.
In fact you can now also unlock your device using an NFC card/sticker, your voice, or your face, or disable the lock screen while a chosen Bluetooth device is connected, while you’re in a specific location, or while it’s on your person (it uses the accelerometer to know when it’s been put down).
Each of these methods can be activated and set up in the ‘Lock screen > Smart Lock’ section of the Android Settings menu. Before you set them up, however, let’s take a look at the di erent ‘Smart Lock’ methods available, and how you can use them.
BLUETOOTH DEVICE
My preferred method of smart unlock is using a Bluetooth device — largely because my Pebble smart watch is just about always connected to my phone. e Bluetooth unlock method works by assigning one or more Bluetooth devices as ‘trusted devices’. As long as these devices are connected to your phone, you won’t have to enter your pass/pattern/pin to unlock your phone or tablet.
If you use a Bluetooth handsfree kit or headphones only sporadically, it won’t be quite as convenient as if you had a smart watch, but if you combine the Bluetooth smart unlock with a location-based smart unlock for home and o ce, then you’re covered for most of the time, anyway — presuming you use Bluetooth headphones during your commute.
LOCATION
You can have your device unlock when you’re in a certain location — preferably one with a Wi-Fi network, as it’ll allow Smart Lock to infer your location more reliably. If you’ve ever told Google Maps where your home is located, you’ll nd your home has already been placed in your ‘Trusted Places’ list. e easiest way to add a new trusted place is when you’re actually there, so rst locate yourself in a trusted place, then just press the ‘Add trusted place’ item in the ‘Settings > Lock screen > Smart Lock > Trusted Place’ menu. Your phone will then gure out where it is, and if it looks right, press ‘Select this location.’ Note that there’s no real point in ne-tuning the location by dragging the map — for best results, as long as it’s approximately correct, leave the pin where your phone puts it.
YOUR FACE
Using your face as a method to unlock your phone, instead of a pin/pass/pattern, has been in Android since Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0). It’s been criticised as insecure (pictures and videos of your face displayed on other smartphones have worked to unlock devices), so I stay away from it.
However, it has been slightly tweaked for Lollipop, and now works in tandem with your pin/pass/pattern, and silently in the background. Meaning that if you swipe to unlock your device, you won’t be prompted for a face scan (potentially tipping o would-be hackers): if it recognises you, it’ll unlock, if not, no cue will be given and you’ll be expected to enter your pin/pass/pattern as per normal.
Note though that, if you have anyone that wants to get in to your phone (from a pesky younger sibling to your arch nemesis), then it is probably the easiest method to circumvent, so I hesitate to recommend it.
YOUR GAIT
is is a curious addition to the unlock options, in that it is termed as ‘unlock when your device is carried on you’. It basically analyses the pattern of your walk, and then locks your device when it senses movement that doesn’t match it — including putting your phone down somewhere, or if someone else is carrying it.
Like the facial recognition, it’s not ideal for maximum security, as there is a chance that it won’t automatically lock when it’s passed to someone else while in an unlocked state (which is not so good if your phone gets pickpocketed).
YOUR VOICE
If you’re a big user of ‘OK Google’ voice searches, you can trigger them and access the results without having to enter your pin/pass/ pattern by adding a ‘Trusted voice’ from the Smart Lock menu. Of course, you will have to have enabled ‘OK Google’ from the Google Search app, too, and you may also have to set your language to ‘English (US).’
NFC TAG
You can set your device to unlock when it reads an NFC tag or sticker (which are less than a few dollars on eBay). is is best used with an NFC sticker placed in the back of the phone holder in your car or other dock, as when the device is no longer in contact with the NFC tag, it will lock again.
SETTING UP SMART LOCK
Setting up your Smart Unlock method is now just a matter of visiting the ‘Lock screen’ section of Android Settings, then scrolling down to ‘Smart Lock’, selecting your chosen method(s), and following the on-screen prompts.
Note that, if you haven’t already, you should rst enable a pin/pass/pattern from the ‘Screen lock’ section of the ‘Lock screen’ menu — otherwise this is all rather moot, isn’t it?