How to activate lock screen security in Android phones

Let’s face it, Android phones are everywhere today. It’s the in-thing nowadays. Android operating system is liked by both the geeky types and the “lesser mortals” alike. Now, Most Android phones are touchscreen slabs, with almost no hardware controls, therefore Android OS supports the concept of a lock screen to protect from unintended touch screen actions. By default, the lock screen on most Android phones doesn’t employ any security, but do remember that Android is based on Linux so security is not an afterthought here.

The Android lock screen supports 3 types of security options for securing the phone using lock screen:

1. Pattern Lock: This lock is the most fun, intuitive and unique kind of security option. When enabled, it shows a 3×3 grid of dots on whole screen where one has to draw a preselected pattern to unlock the screen.
2. Pin Lock: The more traditional type of phone security, this method allows the phone owner to key in a 4 to 16 digit number to unlock the phone.
3. Password Lock: More in the line with Pin Lock, this option allows the owner to type a 4 to 16 digit alphanumeric passphrase to get his/her phone unlocked.

Android allows a fairly large number of failed attempts before locking down your phone permanently. But even then, you can key in your Google account credentials to unlock your phone.

All these security options can be found and enabled by going to Settings>Security>Screen Unlock. On some phone, this can be renamed to something similar to Screen Unlock but the location remains same.

So, if you love your Android phone and deep inside you have this feeling that you cannot live without it, it is highly recommended to use at least one of these options and be at peace with yourself.