If other people sometimes pick up your phone, you can make Steady open only for you. Turn on Lock Steady, and Steady asks for your phone's own fingerprint, face or screen lock before it shows anything. It's free and off to begin with.
Steady doesn't have a PIN or password of its own. Your phone does the check, and Steady never sees or stores your fingerprint, face, PIN, pattern or password. It keeps only two settings on this phone: whether Lock Steady is on, and your Lock again choice.
Turn it on
- Tap Settings (the gear icon at the top of the home screen).
- Under Privacy, turn on Lock Steady. It says: "Steady opens only after your phone's fingerprint, face or screen lock."
- Your phone asks you to confirm it's you. Once you do, the lock is on.
If the row says Set a screen lock on your phone first., your phone has no PIN, pattern or password set. Add one in your phone's settings (menu names vary between phones), then come back to Settings in Steady.
To turn it off, switch Lock Steady off. Your phone asks you to confirm it's you again.
When Steady locks again
Under Lock Steady, choose when Steady locks again after you leave it:
- As soon as you leave Steady (the starting choice)
- After 1 minute away
- After 5 minutes away
Turning the screen sideways doesn't lock Steady, and neither does the Google Play purchase screen.
What you see while it's locked
Steady shows only its name and an Unlock button. There's no streak, no session name and no history on screen. Your phone's check usually opens by itself. If it doesn't, tap Unlock.
- If you close the check, Steady says: "Steady is still locked. Tap Unlock when you're ready."
- If your phone can't confirm it's you, Steady says: "Your phone couldn't confirm it's you. Tap Unlock to try again."
Steady doesn't add a wait or a limit of its own after a failed try. Your phone's own rules for failed tries still apply.
If you tap the widget while Steady is locked, Steady shows the lock first, then carries on to where the widget was taking you.
A session keeps running
If a session is running when you leave Steady, it keeps going, with its cues, as usual. When you come back, you unlock first, then you see the session where it is now. See How to use pocket mode.
What else changes while it's on
- The widget shows less. The home-screen widget shows only Steady · today's session, as with Discreet widget. See How to add the Steady widget to your home screen.
- The app switcher shows a blank card. On Android 13 and newer, your phone's recent apps screen shows a blank card for Steady. On older versions, the lock screen itself is hidden from it, but a card your phone saved before Steady locked can still show the last screen until Steady locks.
- In Settings, Discreet widget (and, on Android 13 and newer, Hide Steady in recent apps preview) shows as on and greyed out, with the note "Always on while Lock Steady is on." Both go back to your own choices when you turn the lock off.
- Reminders don't change. See How to set daily reminders.
If you remove your phone's screen lock
Steady turns its lock off, because there's nothing left for your phone to check. The next time you open Steady, it tells you once: "Your phone no longer has a screen lock, so Steady turned its lock off." To use it again, set a screen lock on your phone, then turn on Lock Steady in Settings, under Privacy.
Troubleshooting
I can't turn on Lock Steady
Your phone needs a screen lock first: a PIN, pattern or password. Set one up in your phone's settings, then try again.
My phone doesn't ask for my fingerprint
Steady accepts whatever your phone offers: fingerprint, face or your screen lock. If your phone has no fingerprint or face set up, it asks for your PIN, pattern or password instead.
Related
- What's in Settings
- Where is my Steady data kept?
- How to add the Steady widget to your home screen
- How to use pocket mode
- How to set daily reminders