Pattern-lock Android apps with ES App Locker

Android devices have plenty of security options -- passwords, PINs, pattern locks -- but they’re mostly about blocking access to the entire system. Get past the lock screen, and if a friend picks up your phone they can do whatever they like.

ES App Locker -- from the developers of the popular ES File Explorer -- adds another layer, enabling you to block access to individual apps by drawing a pattern on the screen.

Once the system is set up then you can easily lock or unlock anything, including system apps, by drawing your custom patterns. And so you could hand your phone to someone if they needed to check a map, say, and be sure they can’t also be going through your texts.

Okay, maybe "sure" is going a little too far, because the technology offers only very basic protection. Anyone with your phone will still be able to view notifications from locked apps, maybe revealing confidential details, and if you’re not around they could just close ES App Locker and access anything.

Still, this isn’t as much about keeping the determined hacker out, as just making sure friends and family can’t accidentally access a particular app, and ES App Locker does that well enough.

There’s still room for improvement, of course, but this is only version 1.0, and developer ES App Group’s great track record of responding to users makes us think ES App Locker is going to be one to watch. Check it out.