How to see who tried to unlock your phone (intruder selfie on Android)
Android keeps no log of wrong PINs. How intruder selfie apps catch whoever tried to unlock your phone, what to check before installing one, and vault alerts.
· 7 min read
Android doesn't keep a list of wrong PINs typed on your lock screen, and it doesn't photograph whoever typed them. To see who tried to unlock your phone, you need an intruder selfie: a feature or app that takes a front-camera photo after a wrong attempt. Here's how intruder selfie apps work, what to check before you install one, and how to catch someone trying to get into your vault rather than your phone.
Can Android show you failed unlock attempts?
Not directly. There's no built-in log of wrong PINs, patterns or fingerprints. Two clues can still tell you someone's been at your phone:
- A lockout timer. After five wrong tries, most Android phones make you wait before you can try again. If you pick up your phone and find it counting down, someone has been guessing.
- The unlock count. Android's Digital Wellbeing screen, in Settings, counts how many times your phone was unlocked each day. A jump you can't explain means someone may have got in.
Neither tells you who it was. For that, you need a photo.
How intruder selfie apps work
Lock-screen intruder apps ask to become a device admin, a special permission that lets an app find out when an unlock attempt fails. When one fails, the app takes a photo with the front camera and saves it, and some also email it to you or record the time and place.
Android limits what apps can do with the camera while they're in the background, and phone makers add their own limits, so these apps work better on some phones than others. Whichever you choose, test it: lock your phone, type a wrong PIN on purpose, and check that a photo turns up.
What to check before you install one
An intruder selfie app sees your lock screen and controls your front camera, so choose carefully:
- Device admin access. It's powerful, and an app that has it must be removed from device admin before you can uninstall it. Give it only to an app you trust.
- Where the photos go. On your phone only, to your email, or to the developer's servers? Photos of faces are personal data, including yours.
- Its other permissions. Camera, and perhaps location for where an attempt happened. It doesn't need your contacts or messages.
- What it does on a wrong fingerprint. Many only react to a wrong PIN, pattern or password.
Your phone's lock screen or your vault's?
There are two different lock screens you might want to watch. Your phone's lock screen guards everything. A vault app has a lock screen of its own, guarding your private photos, and many vaults can photograph whoever types a wrong vault PIN.
A vault's intruder selfie is the easier one to get right, because the vault is open on screen when the wrong PIN is typed, so it doesn't have to watch your phone from the background. But it only covers the vault: someone who guesses wrong on your phone's lock screen won't trigger it.
Hidey's intruder alerts
Hidey watches its own lock screen, and it's plain about what that covers: wrong PINs typed into Hidey, not your phone's lock screen.
- Free: the wrong-attempt notice. After you unlock, Hidey tells you how many wrong attempts came before, for example "3 wrong attempts before this unlock".
- Pro: intruder selfie. In Settings → Security, choose when it takes a photo: after 1, 2 or 3 wrong attempts in a row. The photo is taken with the front camera, encrypted straight into your vault, and shown in the access log.
- Pro: access log. Every unlock and every wrong attempt, with times.
With the calculator disguise on, wrong entries are just sums, so Hidey takes no photo and counts no attempts there. That's on purpose: a calculator that photographed people would give the disguise away. Learn more about what a calculator disguise hides.
Guessing doesn't get far either. After five wrong PINs, Hidey makes you wait 30 seconds, doubling with each wrong try up to 15 minutes. If you turn on self-destruct (Pro), Hidey wipes the vault from that phone after a number of wrong tries you choose, while your backups stay safe.
If someone has been trying
- Change your phone's PIN, and pick one that's longer and less guessable than a birthday or a pattern drawn in plain sight.
- Give your vault a different PIN from your phone's, so knowing one doesn't open the other.
- Lock the apps that matter. A gallery lock or an app lock adds a second barrier.
- Know your way back in. If you change PINs in a hurry, make sure you can still recover them: here's what to do if you forget a vault PIN.