5 settings to make your Android smartphone more secure – Times of India

As tech giants are continuously raising the bar when it comes to security of your smartphones, fraudsters are looking for new ways to gain access to your information. To help users stay safe from these cyber criminals, there are several apps and tools available online that can make your smartphones safe.
Android smartphones also come with several settings that you can change to make the device safer from fraudsters. To help you out, here are 5 settings that you can change in an Android smartphone to make it safer.
Enable screen pinning
Screen pinning allows you to lock the screen of your smartphone to a single app. The feature was introduced by Google back in 2014. The feature doesn’t allow users to change or close the app on the screen before authenticating with password or fingerprint. Screen pinning feature can be quite helpful whenever you are showing a photo to a friend or while flexing the high score of a game you made on your smartphone. It is worth noting that the feature is unavailable if Navigation gestures are turned on. You can find the feature by going to Settings > Password & security > System security > Screen pinning.
Change app permissions
To perform certain functions, apps seek your permission to access sensitive details. Most of the time these permissions are related to Bluetooth, Contacts, Camera, Microphone and Location. As the apps can’t function properly without having permission, most grant the access to sensitive information just to access the features in the app. A few of the apps are not used that often but they can still tap your sensitive details as you have granted them permission. To change app permissions of certain apps, you can go to Settings > Apps & notifications > tap on the app to see and change permissions you have granted.
Turn on Google Play Protect
Google Play Protect checks apps when you install them. It also periodically scans your device. If it finds a potentially harmful app, it may disable the app until you uninstall it or send you a notification to advise you to remove the app. In severe cases, it removes the app automatically. In most cases, if a harmful app has been detected, you will get a notification saying the app was removed. Google Play Protect is enabled on every Android smartphone by default but if it is mistakenly disabled, you can turn it on by going to Settings > Password & security > System security > Google Play Protect.
Enable Find My Device feature
Google offers Find My Device feature on every Android device including phone, tablet, and Wear OS smartwatch. The feature allows you to track, lock or erase your device in case it is stolen or lost. The feature can help you to recover your device or in the worst case, it can help you delete all the data so that it does not fall into wrong hands. The feature gives you a backup plan to keep your device and data safe in case unexpected circumstances. You have to keep the location of your device to use the feature.
Limit content visible on lock screen
With the launch of Android 5.0, Google added a feature that allows users to interact with notifications directly from the lock screen. While the feature is quite useful and many users find it convenient, it can also be a huge privacy concern. If you have this feature enabled, anyone can interact with sensitive messages and other notifications on your smartphone even when it is locked. To hide sensitive information from your lock screen, you can go to Settings > App & Notifications > Notifications and toggle off “Sensitive notifications.”