How To Lock Apps On iPhone With Passcode Touch Id Or Face Id
The iPhone doesnt have an app lock utility to lock an app of your choice. The only time you can lock an iOS app is when the app developer provides the option.
Although a few sensitive categories of apps, like personal messaging, finance, third-party file managers, etc., usually come with the option to lock them with a passcode or Touch ID/Face ID, many popular sensitive apps like Photos, Mail, etc., lack this feature.
In this article, well explore how to lock apps on iPhone with Passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, regardless of whether the app lock feature is available or not.
Note: Though the article focuses on locking apps with device passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID on the iPhone, the same workaround would work on the iPad as well.
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Lock Any iPhone App With Passcode Touch Id Or Face Id
If the app youre trying to protect doesnt have the built-in app lock feature , you can use a workaround to protect the app at launch.
For this workaround, we take advantage of a specific feature of the Timer that comes with the default Clock app on the iPhone. If you set a timer for any duration and set When Timer Ends to Stop Playing, it will automatically lock your device once the timer ends.
Coupled with a Personal Automation via the Shortcuts app, we can set our iPhone to automatically lock the screen when specific apps are opened. Thus, the user needs to unlock the device first before they can continue using the app. Though its not ideal, its better than nothing.
The below steps will guide you to lock specific apps on the iPhone with the device passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID.
Lock Apps On iPhone With App
If you want to lock a specific app on the iPhone, the first thing you need to check is whether the particular app provides a built-in app lock feature. You can usually find this by launching the app, and navigating to its in-app Settings page. If the app provides the feature, youd find it somewhere under the Security or Privacy sections.
Example 1: On WhatsApp, you can lock the screen by going into the Settings tab, then navigating to Account >> Privacy, and scroll down to the bottom and find Screen Lock >> Require Touch ID/Face ID.
Example 2: In the Documents app , you can go into Settings >> Security >> Passkey Lock. Here, you can provide a custom passcode different from the iPhone Lock Screen Passcode, and turn on the Enable Touch ID/Face ID option.
The built-in app lock feature works quite seamlessly and it will blur the contents of the app at launch until the user is authenticated. Some apps also provide the feature to automatically lock the app every time its relaunched or set a specific delay after which the lock is activated.
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