How to lock apps on your kid's Android
Only the apps you choose. Install, set a PIN, pick. A few minutes.
Thirty minutes after handing it over: apps you've never seen.
Settings you didn't change. The work app, gone.
Every time you hand over the phone, you brace a little.
Ban everything, and the kids explode. Allow everything, and you can't look away. What you wanted was the middle: lock only the apps you don't want opened, and leave the rest as it is.
Live Lock is a parental control app for the moments you hand an Android phone to your child. YouTube, games, Settings, purchases, your work apps. When your child opens a screen you chose, it quietly closes. No lock screen, no PIN prompt. Only the screen closes, so music and notifications keep going.
Three steps, today
No rooting, no computer, no developer settings. On the phone itself, in a few minutes.
- On your child's Android, install Live Lock from Google Play.
- Set a parent PIN (4 digits or more). Every setting change sits behind it. Right after that, register an authenticator app or secret questions, so you can reset it yourself if you forget.
- In the app list, switch on the apps you don't want opened: YouTube, games, Settings, purchases, the browser. Learning apps and drawing apps stay off, and work as usual.
Lending your own phone? Pick the other way round. Switch on only the apps that are okay, and everything else closes. The same screen lets you switch between the two ways of choosing.
Siblings, weekdays, weekends. Switch by name
Weekday mornings, learning apps only; evenings, games too. The older one gets learning and games; the younger one gets educational apps only. Save a setup per scene, and when the phone changes hands, just pick the name.
- Weekly schedule — set the hours it stays closed, by day and time. Homework time, bedtime.
- From anywhere — put an event named "Full lock" on your Google Calendar, and your child's phone switches modes for that hour. No parent app, no new account.
- Just for today — "thirty minutes of video" with a set time, and the usual schedule takes back over when it ends.
Questions parents ask
QWill my child learn the PIN?
The parent PIN is used only to open the settings. There is no PIN for a child to unlock anything, and no PIN prompt appears on a closed screen.
QCan my child just uninstall it?
During the free 14 days and after purchase, the Settings screen and the long-press menu can be closed too. Every change sits behind the parent PIN.
QI want different settings for each child.
Save a setup per scene and switch by name. Learning and games for the older one, educational apps only for the younger one; when the phone changes hands, just pick the name.
QI use an iPhone. Does that matter?
No. The lock runs inside the child's Android phone; your own phone can be anything. Switching from anywhere works from the Google Calendar on your iPhone too.
No more heart-skipping moments.
Every feature free for 14 days. One app stays free after that. No card needed.
Get it on Google Play See pricing