Description: Lockdown Pro is an Android app that aims to protect specific parts of your device by presenting either a password or pattern lock every time someone tries to open the app. Pattern unlocking or password unlocking can be used on Android’s lockscreen, but having to deal with this every time we unlock our phone grows tiresome, as such Lockdown Pro can lock down any app you like, allowing you to enjoy security without total inconvenience. Lockdown Pro can lock down any app, as well as send you a photo of the person trying to access your personal information and some other nifty tricks as well. Read on as I take a close look at what Lockdown Pro can do for you.
How it Works: You’ll first need to download Lockdown Pro from the Play Store in order to get it up and running, and then you can start to get a feel for the app.
You’ll be asked to set a pattern or a pin, and then to confirm it. This pattern is then the same one that will be used to lock which ever apps it is that you want to lock down.
Once you have that set up, you can then go ahead and choose which apps you want to lock down. For me, I’m most concerned about my cloud storage, my messages and little ones buying things or installing cruddy apps from the Play Store. So I’m going to lock some of those down.
This definitely worked for me, and I have to say turning the lock on every now and then to prevent the kids – or much worse a thief – getting into my personal stuff without having to use a pattern every time I unlock my phone is pretty convenient. There are some excellent tricks and a lot of settings that you can tweak as well.
One of the more subtle approaches to locking down your apps is the Fake Cover feature, which makes it looks like the app has crashed, which is a nice way of keeping out kids or friends from your apps without raising suspicion.
This works fairly well, but I did find this to be a little temperamental at times, however for those more security conscious, Observer mode is the best bet.
This will allow your phone to take a photo of someone who’s rooting around your phone and then send to an email message of your choice or even upload them to Google Drive. This is great for those that leave their phone behind often or maybe live in a slightly rough neighborhood. If you like Lockdown Pro, then it might be a good idea to upgrade to the premium account.
One of the best features for those conscious of their device’s look and feel is all the extra themes that you’ll be able to get access to.
Opinion: Lockdown Pro is a great approach to security without the hassle. It’s good that we can have a pin to unlock our devices, but how many times do we unlock our smartphones every day? With Lockdown Pro, you can then lock certain apps down, securing your text messages or your cloud storage without having to deal with a pattern lock every time you want to use your device. Other tricks include the ability to fake a force close, which is nice to protect apps from your friends and family without look suspicious and it does work quite well. I appreciate the ability to theme things as well, but I would have liked to seen more of these included for free, but the app isn’t too expensive for the premium version.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Lockdown Pro doesn’t slow down your device at all and it works nice and quickly.
- Features (5/5) – With an easy way to lock your apps down as well as more advanced features to help ward off thieves, Lockdown Pro has everything you could want on offer.
- Theme (4/5) – The app looks good and has a modern UI to it and the themes that are on offer can help the app blend in nicely with your preferred style, making it a good-looking.
- Overall (4/5) – Lockdown Pro is a great way of taking back selective control of the security of certain apps and it works brilliantly in the background with very little hassle.
Pros
- Lockdown Pro can help you lock out any app installed on your phone, perfect for keeping thieves out of your messages and more.
- With a good variety of themes on offer, you can make Lockdown Pro blend in with the rest of your phone or tablet.
- Can take a picture of whoever tried to break into your locked apps and then email this to you or upload it to Google Drive.
- No performance hit or anything like that to worry about with Lockdown Pro.
Cons
- Premium version seems to contain most of the features that you really want.
- Fake cover is sometimes a little temperamental.
Conclusion: Lockdown Pro is one of the better solutions I’ve come across and it allows you to lock away the features that you want, rather than a wholesale solution like a lockscreen pattern lock. Being able to lock away certain apps at certain times is nice and the fake cover feature is a more polite way of gaining yourself some privacy around friends and family, especially with devices that might be shared. Overall, Lockdown Pro is one of the easier solutions to secure your private data without the need to use a complete solution.