Smart Lock controls what kids or friends get to open on your Android phone

[Shadez]

Android may be open source, but that doesn’t mean you have to apply those same principles to your kids. Parents who want to take a more locked-down approach to shield their kids from unsuitable activity on their phone can use Smart Lock ($1.99), a new app from Nightshade Labs that prevents the phone from accessing non-approved content.

Smart Lock features an Approved Launcher mode that allows users to only access a pre-determined set of apps. This is ideal if you tend to let your kids play games on your phone but don’t want them browsing the net or YouTube unsupervised.

You may also want to install this if you have violent games or profane music stored on the device, or if you just want to lend the phone to a co-worker/friend without them accessing your personal information.

Smart Lock has a couple features that adults may want to use for themselves. In Classic mode, you can block access to all apps except the media player for quick access while working out. In No Lock mode, lock screens are removed completely and users can jump straight to the home screen by pressing their device’s wake button.

Here’s a video demo from the app’s developer explaining more.





Smart Lock controls what kids or friends get to open on your Android phone | andrew | Androinica