AppLock Face/Voice Recognition is an Android app developed by Sensory and aims to make your chosen apps as secure as possible, by making it impossible for anyone other than yourself to open the apps. AppLock Face/Voice Recognition does this by using both voice recognition using either a predetermined phrase or one of your own chosen phrases, as well as your own face using the front-facing camera on your device. AppLock has a slick, Material Design interface that makes it nice and easy to choose which apps are locked away as well as how they can be unlocked. This gives users of AppLock freedom in how their apps are kept safe, something that a lot of users will find helpful, especially those devices that will have more than one user accessing them at a time.
Just as with most Android apps, users will need to download AppLock Face/Voice Recognition from the Play Store. And from there, they’ll need to first accept some terms and conditions before going any further.
Setting up AppLock is one of the easiest things I have done in a long time on Android. There are no pesky ads or anything like that here, and there are no suggestions on how to use the app. Instead, it asks you to choose an unlock phrase.
Or, you can create your own phrase, and my inner-child was very happy to report that “Open Sesame” does indeed work, and it worked well.
When you’ve chosen your unlock phrase, you’ll need to verify your identity to “enroll” yourself in the app. This involves using the front-facing camera on your device, as well as repeating your chosen phrase over-and-over.
Once this is all done, users can then go ahead and choose the apps that they want to have locked away by the app, this is nice and easy to do and there are two levels of security.
These two different modes, dubbed Convenience and TrulySecure, are neatly explained by the app itself, which is a relief.
With a slick Material Design UI, everything is really easy to use here in AppLock, and it all looks great, too.
While security is the key objective of AppLock, and that really shows, it appears that neither privacy nor discretion are concerns of the app. After all, users that choose to accept the terms and conditions of AppLock, will be greeted by the knowledge that their photos and audio will be uploaded straight to Sensory TrulySecure.
Where discretion is concerned, anyone using your phone will know that you have some sort of security measure running on your device because of the persistent notification that you cannot ever dismiss. This can be fixed however by long-pressing the notification and then turning it off in the settings. However, as default behavior goes it would be better for this to not be a persistent notification.
All-in-all, I found a lot to like about AppLock, it not only looked good, but had all of the right boxes ticked from a security point of view. Using both visual and auditory measures is a great idea, and many operating systems should have this sort of thing already installed. Getting everything setup, as well as changing settings, is also something that I found much easier in AppLock than other similar apps and it’s clear that this has been developed to a high standard. There’s lots of polish here to help make this stand out from the crowd, and while it might come across as simple in its scope, it does what it’s supposed to do and does that well, which is more than we can say for a lot of apps these days.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – AppLock runs nice and quickly and doesn’t suffer from any pesky bugs or anything like that.
- Theme (4/5) – The good-looking Material Design theme not only looks the part but is also really easy to use and everything is straightforward when in use.
- Features (4/5) – It might “just” be an AppLock app, but that’s a good thing, as there are no other features pushed onto users. Instead, this is an app that delivers on its promises and works really, really well.
- Overall (4/5) – With a few extras here and there, this is a great app that does what it needs to do, and while the terms and conditions might not please everyone, this is a great free app.
Pros
- Super-easy to get up and running, with a great tutorial and easy-to-follow steps.
- Great voice recognition software results in very few mishearings of your phrase, and you can choose whichever phrase you want.
- Photo recognition can help make sure that you and you alone can access the apps that you’ve chosen to keep save from prying eyes.
- Convenience and TrulySecure modes make it easy to control how secure your apps are without totally sacrificing ease of use.
Cons
- Might not live up to all the extra features that some would be expecting.
Overall, AppLock has a lot to offer, and it’s so simple and slick that almost any user out there could get this and be able to use it. There are no annoying ads or anything like that, and it looks great as well, which means that AppLock is one of the more modern-looking apps that offers this sort of protection without any fuss or hassle. A great tool that does what it says it does, AppLock is worth looking in to.