Need to let someone use your phone for a moment — whether it’s a friend or a stranger — without letting them poke around? Maybe you want to show a photo, an email, or a funny TikTok, but nothing beyond that. Android has a built-in feature for exactly this called App Pinning, and it’s easy to use. It locks the phone to a single app, preventing access to the home screen, notifications, or other apps until you authenticate. iPhone has a similar feature too, and I’ll show you how to use both.
Your life is in your phone
Don’t let people snoop around
I’m pretty paranoid about my digital security, and you should too. Unfettered access to one’s phone could allow prying eyes to see bank accounts, location history, private chats, photos that you don’t want people to see, emails, and so much more. Anyone trying to compromise your data or steal your identity just needs bits and pieces of information about where you bank and who you talk to to be able to open accounts in your name and compromise your identity. I literally don’t even want a stranger to see which apps I have installed on my homescreen because that could give them insight into which banks I use, how I communicate, or who I’m associated with. So I would never, and you should never, give a stranger access to your phone, even for a brief moment, without locking them out of the rest of the phone with App Pinning.
You might be thinking: when would you ever hand your phone to an untrusted person, such that you need to do this in the first place? I can think of a lot of examples: perhaps your kid wants to watch a YouTube video, but you don’t want them sending emails to your boss. Or perhaps a stranger or person in distress needs to make a phone call, but you don’t want them to use any other app. Perhaps your friend wants to do a quick Google search, but you don’t want them to tour your entire search history.
How to pin an app on Android
And make it impossible for someone to look around
To enable this feature, just go to Settings -> Security -> Advanced/More -> App Pinning. Of course, the fastest way to do this is to simply search your Settings for “App Pinning”. Then just turn it on. Once you turn it on, you’ll have options on whether you want to authenticate to turn off pinning (turn this on!), and you’re done. Pinning an app is as easy as launching the app you want to pin, then going to the recent view, tapping on the program icon, and clicking Pin.
How to turn it off
From there, the app you pinned stays on the screen. To get out of it — swipe up and hold, authenticate, and you’re back to normal.
You can do app pinning on iOS, too
Apple calls it “Guided Access”
If you have an iPhone or other iOS device, you can utilize this important security trick too. Just go to Settings -> Accessibility ->Guided Access. You can then walk through the settings to link a triple-click of the power button to the Guided Access toggle. So that just means opening the app you want to pin, triple-clicking power, then handing the phone over. When you are done, and you are ready to turn it off, triple-click power again, authenticate with Face ID/PIN or Touch ID, and you’re back to normal.
One major downside for Photos (and a fix for iOS, but not Android)
There’s something you should know about both App Pinning in Android and Guided Access in iOS: if you are trying to show someone a picture, and you pin Google or Apple photos, the other person can theoretically still view other photos in your library by swiping right or left, or by going back to your gallery view, since they have access to the entire Photos app. To fix this, you also have to disable touch input during the session. Here’s how to do that on iOS. In iOS, when you start Guided Access, click “Session Settings” in the prompt for Guided Access, which will let you disable touch. Unfortunately, on Android, you’re kind of out of luck because you can’t disable the touchscreen with app pinning.
Why I Always Check App Permissions Before Hitting Install (and How to Do It)
Taking a moment to check these settings can save you from problems down the line.
Never hand your phone to someone without locking the app first
Please, don’t ever hand your phone to a stranger to use your phone without locking your phone down with app pinning in Android or Guided Access in iOS. While Android makes it impossible to lock your touchscreen, which could let someone flip through your photos, these features work very well to keep the person using just one app and even prevent them from accessing your homescreen.
