Choose when your Android phone can stay unlocked

You can keep your phone unlocked in some situations, like when your phone is in your pocket or you're near home. When you use Smart Lock, you only need to unlock once with your PIN, pattern, or password.

Important:

Let your phone stay unlocked

  1. Make sure you have a screen lock. Learn how to set a screen lock.
  2. Open your phone's Settings app.
  3. Tap Security And then Advanced settings And then Smart Lock. If you don't see "Security," tap Security & location.
  4. Enter your PIN, pattern, or password.
  5. Pick an option and follow the on-screen steps.

When you turn on your screen after you’ve unlocked your phone, a pulsing circle around the Lock  means that your phone is still unlocked. When you don't use your phone for 4 hours, and after it restarts, you'll need to unlock it.

To lock your phone again, touch and hold Lock .

Turn off Smart Lock

  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap Security And then Advanced Settings And then Smart Lock. If you don't see "Security," tap Security & location.
  3. Enter your PIN, pattern, or password.
  4. Tap On-body detection.
  5. Turn off Use On-body detection.
  6. Remove all trusted devices and trusted places. ​On some phones, you might need to remove trusted faces and Voice Match voices.
  7. Optional: To turn off your screen lock, learn more about screen lock settings.

Learn about locking options

Keep your phone unlocked when it's on you

Turn on-body detection on or off

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap On-body detection.
  2. Turn Use On-body detection on or off.

How on-body detection works

  • After you unlock your phone, it stays unlocked as long as it senses that it’s on your body. After you put down your phone, like if you set it on a table, your phone can take up to one minute to automatically lock.
  • On some phones, on-body detection learns the pattern of your walk. If it detects a walk that's very different, it could lock your phone. If your phone locks after walking, unlock the phone and it will learn the changes in your walk.
  • After you get into a car, bus, train, or other vehicle, your phone can take 5-10 minutes to lock.
    Important: When you're on an airplane or boat, your phone could not lock automatically. Make sure to lock manually if needed. Learn how to manually lock your phone.

Important: Your phone stores accelerometer data about the pattern of your walk to help determine when you're carrying your phone. When you turn off on-body detection, your phone deletes this data.

Keep your phone unlocked when it's at a trusted place

Use trusted places

Tip: Trusted places works best with Wi-Fi.

Important: Your trusted location is an estimate

Your trusted location can go out beyond the walls of your home or custom place. It can keep your phone unlocked within a radius of up to 80 meters.

Location signals can be copied or manipulated. Someone with access to specialized equipment could unlock your phone.

Stop showing notifications on your lock screen 

Show the lockdown option in your power settings

  1. Open your phone's Settings app.
  2. Tap Display And then Advanced And then Lock screen display. If you don't see "Display," tap Security & location And then Lock screen preferences.
  3. Turn on Show lockdown option. The lockdown button will show in the list of settings when you press the power button.

Turn on lockdown

Important: Lockdown will only work until you unlock your phone. If you want keep using lockdown, turn it on each time you want to use it.
  1. Hold the power button for a couple seconds.
  2. Tap Lockdown. This turns off notifications, fingerprint or face recognition unlocking, and Smart Lock while on your lock screen.
Add, remove, or edit home location

Add your home location

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted places.
  2. Tap Home.
  3. Follow the on-screen steps.
Tip: This updates your home across Google. Learn more about your home address in Google Maps.

Remove your home location

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted places.
  2. Tap Home.
  3. Pick the kind of removal:
    • To turn off your home as a trusted location, tap Turn off this location.
    • To clear your home address across Google, tap Edit And then Clear  And then Clear.

Edit your home location

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted places.
  2. Tap your home location.
  3. Tap Edit And then your home address or map.
  4. Enter the address that you want to use as your home.

Tip: If your home has more than one building at the same address, the trusted place that you want can be different from the address. To get better location accuracy, you can add the actual location of your home within the building complex. See how to add custom places (below).

Add, remove, or edit custom places

Add a custom place

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted places.
  2. Tap Add trusted place. A map will open to your current location.
    • To use your current location, tap Select this location And then Select.
    • To pick a different location, tap Search .
  3. Name the trusted location (like "Work"). Tap OK.

Edit or remove a custom place

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted places.
  2. From the list of trusted Smart Lock options, pick the place.
  3. Pick the kind of edit:
    • Delete
    • Rename
    • Edit Address
Keep your device unlocked when connected to a trusted device

Add a trusted Bluetooth device

  1. On your device, make sure that Bluetooth is on. Learn how to turn on Bluetooth.
  2. Open your phone's Settings app.
  3. Tap Security and then Advanced settings and then Smart Lock. If you don't see "Security," tap Security & location.
  4. Tap Trusted devices and then Add trusted device.
  5. On the list of devices, tap a device.
    • You can keep your phone unlocked for longer when it's connected to a trusted device, like a Bluetooth watch or car speaker system. We recommend avoiding devices that are always with your phone, like Bluetooth keyboards or cases.
  6. Optional: To remove a Bluetooth device, tap the device you want to remove. Then, tap Forget and then Forget device.
  7. Unlock your phone. If your phone is connected to the trusted device, it will stay unlocked.

Important: Make sure you're secure when using trusted Bluetooth devices

It's possible that someone could keep your phone unlocked by imitating your Bluetooth connection.

If you get a notification on your phone: When your phone can't determine that you're using a secure connection, you'll get a notification. You could need to unlock your phone.

Bluetooth connectivity range can vary. Range depends on factors like your phone model, Bluetooth device, and current environment. Bluetooth connectivity can be up to 100 meters. If someone takes your phone while it's near your trusted device, and if your trusted device has unlocked it, that person could access your phone.

Older Android versions

If you're using Android 9 and below, you might find these options on your device.

Use "Ok Google"
Say "Ok Google" from a secure lock screen. If we recognize your voice, you can ask Google to do things for you, or visit sites, without manually unlocking your phone. Learn how to turn on "Ok Google."
Set up, improve, or remove a trusted face

Important: This facial recognition is less secure than a PIN, pattern, or password. Someone who looks similar to you could unlock your phone.

Set up and use a trusted face

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted face.
  2. Tap Set up and follow the on-screen steps. After you set a trusted face, every time you turn on your phone, it'll look for your face and unlock if it recognizes you.
    • Smart Lock doesn't store photos of you. Data used to recognize your face is kept only on your phone. Apps can't see or use the data, and it isn't backed up on Google servers.

Tip: When your phone looks for your face, you'll see the Trusted face . If your phone doesn’t recognize your face, you can unlock your phone with your PIN, pattern, or password.

Improve your phone's facial recognition

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted face.
  2. Tap Improve face matching.
  3. Tap Next and follow the on-screen steps.

Remove a trusted face

  1. In the Smart Lock menu, tap Trusted face.
  2. Tap Remove trusted face.
  3. When asked if you want to remove the trusted face, tap Remove.

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