How to lock apps on Samsung (Gallery, WhatsApp and more)

Many Android phones can lock any app with a PIN or fingerprint, straight from Settings. Samsung's One UI can't, at least not yet: there's no app lock switch to turn on. You still have good ways to lock apps on a Galaxy phone or tablet, and the right one depends on the app. Here's how to lock apps on Samsung, including Gallery and WhatsApp, and what a lock does and doesn't protect.

Does Samsung have an app lock?

Not built in. One UI has no setting that puts a lock on any app you choose, which is why searching Settings for "app lock" turns up nothing. Other brands have one, as our guide to locking apps on Android shows, and reports based on leaked test builds say Samsung is working on one for One UI 9.5. Until it ships, these are the options.

Option 1: put the app in Secure Folder

Secure Folder can hold its own copies of apps, behind its own PIN, pattern, password or fingerprint. It works on Galaxy phones and tablets alike.

Set up Secure Folder, if you haven't, under Settings → Security and privacy → More security settings → Secure Folder. Our Secure Folder guide walks through it.
Open Secure Folder and tap the plus icon.
Pick the app and tap Add.

Samsung says apps in Secure Folder work independently from the versions outside it, with their own accounts, settings and data. So sign in to the copy inside, and if you no longer need the original, uninstall it. To keep the app out of sight as well, hide Secure Folder itself, as our guide to hiding apps on Samsung shows.

The copy is only locked while Secure Folder is. It locks itself on the schedule you choose under Auto lock Secure Folder in its settings, and after a restart, apps inside wait until you unlock Secure Folder once, as our guide to Secure Folder's notices explains.

Option 2: use the app's own lock

Many apps can lock themselves, and when one can, it's the simplest choice:

WhatsApp: App lock, in WhatsApp's Settings → Privacy, opens WhatsApp only with your fingerprint. On older versions it's called Fingerprint lock. To lock single chats instead, open the chat's menu and choose Lock chat: WhatsApp moves it into a Locked chats folder that opens with your fingerprint or screen lock, can be hidden behind a secret code, and shows no names or messages in notifications.
Gallery: Samsung's Gallery can't lock itself, but on One UI 8.5 its Private album keeps chosen photos behind your screen lock or fingerprint. Here's how it compares with Secure Folder.
Google Photos: its Locked Folder keeps chosen photos behind your screen lock.
Banking and payment apps usually ask for your PIN or fingerprint each time already.

Option 3: an app locker from Google Play

An app locker can lock any app, but to know which app you're opening, it needs wide permissions, such as Accessibility or usage access. Before you install one, check who makes it and what it asks for, and remember that anyone who can open Settings may be able to stop or uninstall it, unless it locks Settings too.

Lending your phone? Pin the app

If the point is to hand your phone to someone, app pinning keeps them inside one app. Turn on Allow apps to be pinned under Settings → Security and privacy → More security settings. Then open Recents, tap the app's icon at the top of its window and choose Pin this app. Samsung says you unpin it by touching and holding Recents and Back together. Our screen pinning guide explains what pinning does and doesn't protect.

A locked Gallery doesn't protect your photos

Locking Gallery, or WhatsApp, locks the app, not the photos. My Files, Google Photos and any app with access to your photos can still show them, as our guide to locking your gallery explains. WhatsApp's photos, for one, sit in your gallery unless you hide them from it.

For photos that need real protection, take them out of Gallery altogether. Hidey is a vault app that encrypts each photo and video you hide, checks the encrypted copy, then deletes the original, so it's gone from Gallery, My Files and every other app. The vault opens with its own PIN or password, or your fingerprint, separate from your screen lock, and its calculator disguise is free if you'd rather it looked like a calculator.

Unlike Secure Folder, which Samsung no longer backs up, Hidey backs up to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive, free and encrypted before upload, and restores on any Android phone. 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). For all of Samsung's ways to hide photos, see how to hide photos on Samsung.