Privacy-minded AppLock app for Android gets support for Android Oreo 8.0.

I got my brand-new OnePlus 5T yesterday and I love it. It’s super-fast and best of all, it cost less than $500 and comes with the same specs as high-end and very expensive so-called flagships – looking at you Apple and Samsung. Anyway, this is not the point of this blog post. It’s about AppLock, an app for Android that protects your privacy.

We store all kind of stuff on our devices, but we don’t necessarily want to show them to anyone handling our phones or tablets. That’s where AppLock comes in handy. The app lets you hide your photos and videos from prying eyes or lock apps.

I used the app on my former phone, a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. So, I downloaded the app from Google Store to lock some apps. Before you ask, I have my reasons and I do not want to share them with you. This is what privacy is all about and AppLock has been developed just for that. As a side note, my new phone, the OnePlus 5T has AppLock built-in – which is cool.

The standalone version of AppLock has been updated today. The changelog does not say much about the changes. There’s some optimized functions and bug fixes. The fact that the app now supports Android 8.0 Oreo is probably most newsworthy. But again, the changelog does not go into details about it.

If you’re privacy-minded, check-out AppLock in Google PlayStore. It supports protecting your privacy with a password, pattern and even fingerprint. Give it a try. The app contains in-app purchases should you want to unlock advanced features.

OneNote for Android now supports password to sections, fingerprint unlocking. Read this how-to.

Today Microsoft has updated OneNote for Android to support password-protected sections with the goal to secure your notes, sensitive or not, “from prying eyes”. Securing notes is a feature that is already available in the Windows version of the app and it’s great to see Microsoft porting it to Android as part of its mobile strategy. Let’s see how to use the new feature on Android after installing the update.

After starting OneNote on your device, open a Notebook that has the sections you want to lock with a password. Tap and hold on one of your section and tap “Protect Section” in the menu to bring up the screen below where you’ll type your password twice and tap OK. After entering your password, OneNote will take you back to the Sections screen where you’ll see an unlock padlock next to your section name. Yes, OneNote does not lock the section right away. You’ll have to close and re-open the app for the password to come into effect. But wait, there’s more.

The update also includes support for fingerprints on devices with fingerprint scanners built-in. This feature does not appear right away. You must first setup a password as explained above and the next time you unlock a section, OneNote will have a toggle to enable “Unlock with fingerprint next time” you access your section. Users will still be given the option to unlock their sections with a password.

OneNote does not let you have more than one section unlocked. It will automatically lock a section after you navigate away to open another section. Which makes sense from a security perspective. However, I don’t get it why Microsoft added a “Lock All” feature in the context menu of a section. Tap and hold on an unlocked section and you will see “Lock All” there. Again, not sure why it’s there, but I may be missing a point.

This context menu also lets you change or remove the password. The former requires you enter the old password before entering your new one. To remove a password, type your password and you’re done. Note, you can do all this only after unlocking a section. These options won’t appear if you tap and hold on a locked section, obviously.

One very important detail: At the bottom of the unlock screen - see screenshot above -, there’s this very important note that says: “Important: If you lose or forget the password. OneNote can’t recover your data.” There does not seem to be a limit on the number of logon attempts. During my test, I typed a wrong password 10 times without any consequences. So, if you forget or lose your password, your notes will remain, you just won’t be able to access them anymore. Unless you remember your password. You’ve been warned.

The ability to lock sections in OneNote is a nice update for users who are security-minded. Check it out in Google Play Store.