How To Secure Any Android App With Your Fingerprint

[Petrovic]

Learn how you can keep your any Android app safe and private with your fingerprint

Google has now added fingerprint scanning support natively to Android ecosystem so that its own devices, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P could use this fingerprinting facility. Luckily for Android smartphone owners, Google also added the fingerprint scanning support to its stock Android AOSP project making the Fingerprint API available for anybody who can use it.

The bad luck is that your smartphone needs a fingerprint scanner to make full use of this API. Since Google made the Fingerprint API available for Android smartphones, many developers started to implement this facility into their Apps. Once such developer is Rick Clephas, who used the API to provide superb locking system for Android Apps. Using his App will now allow Android smartphone owners to set their fingerprint as passcode to open any App on their mobile.

In this article, we shall show you how you can lock any app using your fingerprint to keep away your pokey friends and ensure privacy.

Requirements:

• Fingerprint scanner
• Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher

(Note that Samsung devices running Android 4.3 to 5.1 will still work using Samsung’s API, and those on Marshmallow will use Google’s API)

Step 1: Install FingerSecurity by Rick Clephas

FingerSecurity is a free app that will allow you to block access to the Apps of your choice on your device using your fingerprint.

Step 2: Installing the App

You will get a quick feature tour when you first launch FingerSecurity. On the second page of this tour, you will get a chance to double-check your device’s compatibility. Tap “Check Compatibility” here, and if you see a big green check mark, then proceed further.

From here, the next page of the feature tour will ask you to register fingerprints in your smartphone’s settings under “Security” if you have not done it before. Then, you will be prompted to create a backup password. Lastly, FingerSecurity will ask for “Usage Access.” So, tap “Open Settings” on the screen, then press “OK” on the following menu.

Step 3: Enable Additional Security Options (Optional)

Once the essentials are done, you might think of making your security stronger by enabling a pair of additional options. If you would like to avoid access to only certain screens within your apps, enable the “Improved protection” option in FingerSecurity’s Settings tab. Then, tap “Enable” on the popup, and select and enable the FingerSecurity entry on the following screen, and press “OK.”

Next, to stop someone from being able to bypass the fingerprint lock on your apps, enable the “Advanced security” option, and then press “Activate” on the next screen. This will turn FingerSecurity into a device administrator, which means that the app cannot be uninstalled or closed unless you open this settings menu, scan your fingerprint, and disable this option again.

Step 4: Locking Apps that you want to remain private

With all of the bigger options configured, the only thing left to do is select the apps you would like to lock with your fingerprint. From the Apps tab in FingerSecurity’s main menu, tap the floating action button in the bottom-right corner. Next, choose any apps you would like to lock, then enable the first toggle switch on the subsequent screen.

If you chose to enable the Improved Protection feature in Step 3, you will see a second toggle switch on the same menu. Enable this option to only lock certain screens within the app, and you will notice a popup. The entries in this list are activities, which mean that their names are not simple to decode. However, after the last period in each entry if you concentrate on just the words, you will get an improved idea of what each activity is.

Step 5: Unlock Apps with Your Fingerprint

Now that everything has been configured, your apps will be locked by default. When you open any of the apps you selected in Step 4, you will be greeted by the lock screen. All you need to do is simply scan your fingerprint to access them.

Rick has also released a premium FingerSecurity App which will give some some additional features over and above the free version.

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