AppLock — PIN, Pattern, No Ads

AppLock keeps the apps that matter behind a pattern, PIN or fingerprint. Choose which apps to protect and AppLock covers them with a lock screen the moment they open.

It has no ads and no analytics, and AppLock's own code never connects to the internet. Your PIN, your locked apps and your intruder photos stay on this phone.

WHAT IT DOES

• Lock any installed app — messaging, banking, photos, social, settings
• Unlock with a 3x3 pattern or a 4-6 digit PIN
• Fingerprint or face unlock, using your phone's own biometric hardware
• Cooldown: reopen an app within a grace period without unlocking again, or require the lock every single time
• A different cooldown for each app
• Intruder snapshot: a silent front-camera photo after repeated failed attempts, kept on this phone only
• Disguise the launcher icon as a calculator, clock, notes or one of six others
• Lock AppLock itself, so its own settings are behind the same lock — on by default
• Lock newly installed apps the moment they appear
• Quick Settings tile to pause protection
• Export the intruder log, or back up and restore your settings, to a file you choose
• Dark and light themes

KEEPING CHILDREN OUT OF CERTAIN APPS

A common use: lock the video, game, shopping or banking apps you would rather a child did not open, with a PIN they do not know. It is a lock, not a monitoring suite — it does not report on anyone or track usage.

HOW YOUR LOCK IS STORED

Your pattern or PIN is scrambled before it is saved, so it cannot be read back off this phone. It is never uploaded and never included in a backup. If you forget it, there is no recovery email and no reset code — reinstalling the app is the only way back in. That is deliberate: a lock with a back door is not a lock.

PERMISSIONS, AND WHY

• Usage access — to notice which app just came to the front. AppLock only sees which app opened. It cannot read anything inside your apps.
• Draw over other apps — to show the lock screen on top of a protected app before its content is visible.
• Notification — Android requires a visible notification while an app watches in the background. Yours is silent and shows no badge.
• Camera — only for intruder snapshots, only after failed unlock attempts, stored only on this phone. Skip the feature and the permission is never requested.
• Battery optimisation exemption — optional. Some manufacturers stop background apps aggressively; without it, protection can be interrupted on those phones.

There is no accessibility service and no device administrator. The internet permission Android lists comes from Google Play's billing library, which reports to Google whether purchases work. AppLock's own code never uses it.

SUPPORTING APPLOCK

There are no ads here and no trackers, so nobody is paying for your attention and there is nothing to sell. AppLock is paid for by the people who choose to support it.

That is what Pro is. It unlocks locking more than 5 apps, intruder snapshots, the disguised icon, a separate cooldown for each app, automatic locking of newly installed apps, and log export — and it keeps the app free of ads for everyone. Monthly, yearly, or one payment for life. Billed by Google Play; cancel a subscription any time in the Play Store.

HONEST LIMITATIONS

• Uninstalling AppLock removes the lock. That is how Android works, and no app-locker can prevent it without device-administrator powers that create more problems than they solve.
• A disguised icon is cover from a passing glance, not a hiding place. The app is still listed in your phone's settings under its real name.
• On some manufacturers' phones, aggressive battery management can pause background apps. The battery exemption above is the fix where it happens.