How to lock apps on Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO with the built-in App lock

Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO phones have an app lock built in, so you don't need to install anything to lock WhatsApp, Gallery or any other app. It's called App lock, and once it's on, a locked app asks for your password, fingerprint or face before it opens. Here's how to set it up on HyperOS, how to choose what it locks, what to do if you forget its password, and what it doesn't protect.

The steps follow Xiaomi's own help for HyperOS phones. On older MIUI phones, App lock is also in the Security app.

How to turn on App lock

1. Open Settings, scroll down and tap Apps.
2. Tap App lock, then Turn on.
3. Set a password as the screen asks.
4. Add your Xiaomi Account when it offers. You can skip this and add it later, but don't skip it for good: Xiaomi says it's the only way to reset a forgotten App lock password.
5. Choose the apps you want to lock.

From now on, opening one of those apps asks for your App lock password first.

Unlock with your fingerprint or face

Typing a password every time gets old. Xiaomi's help says that after you set the password, you can also turn on fingerprint or face unlock for App lock, so a locked app opens with a touch or a glance. Your password still works as the fallback.

Choose what App lock locks

Go back to Settings → Apps → App lock at any time to turn the lock on or off for each app. Lock the apps where a quick look would give the most away: messaging apps, Gallery, your file manager, Google Photos, and anything with your banking or shopping.

Hidden apps can use the same App lock password: turn that on in Hide apps' settings, and spreading two fingers on the home screen asks for it before your hidden apps appear, as our guide to hiding apps on Redmi and Xiaomi explains.

If you forget the App lock password

1. Open Settings → Apps → App lock.
2. On the password screen, tap Forgot password.
3. Enter the password of the Xiaomi Account you linked, then set a new App lock password.

If you never linked a Xiaomi Account, Xiaomi says the only way to reset the password is a factory data reset, which erases everything on the phone. If yours isn't linked yet, link it now, while you still know the password.

What App lock doesn't protect

App lock locks apps, not the files inside them:

• A locked Gallery still leaves your photos open. File Manager, Google Photos and any app with access to your photos can still show them, as our guide to locking your gallery explains.
• Notifications from a locked app can still appear, so hide their content on the lock screen if they're private.
• Settings and Google Play still list every app, locked or not.

For photos, Xiaomi's own answer is the Private album in Gallery, behind your privacy protection password, which our guide to hiding photos on Redmi and Xiaomi covers. If you also use phones from other brands, our guide to locking apps on Android shows where each one keeps its app lock.

Locking the photos, not just the app

Hidey is a vault app that protects the photos themselves. It encrypts each photo and video you hide, checks the encrypted copy, then deletes the original, so Gallery, File Manager and the other apps on your phone can't show it, locked or not. The vault opens with its own PIN or password, or your fingerprint, and works the same on any Android phone.

Its backup to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive is free and encrypted before upload, so your photos survive a lost or reset phone and move to your next one, whatever the brand. If you forget your PIN, you can reset it through Google after a 24-hour wait, so whoever controls your Google account could too, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro).