automatically disable screen lock at home or work

[Camilo]

I believe this is an "Android" question rather than specific to my devices, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Short version: is there a simple setting that will automatically disable my screen lock when I'm at home or at work? If not a setting, is there an app you recommend?

Long version: I'm fairly new to "devices". I got my first, a wifi-only Samsung tablet about 6 months ago and use it sporadically, mostly when traveling, but also it's become my semi-permanent music player at home. I got my first smart phone, a MotoX about 2 weeks ago. Love the MotoX and feel it's exceptionally well designed, easy to configure, and useful, but I have nothing to compare it to other than my wife's IPhone 5.

I have done a web search for this information. I have also searched and scanned around these forums, but didn't find anything I felt comfortable with in terms of how fussy or current the set up steps are or how current the app recommendations are. The two apps I've come across are, IIRC, called "Delayed Lock (trial or paid)" and "Unlock with WiFi".

My question is - today, mid-October 2013 - how do you recommend disabling screen lock while at certain locations. I imagine I'll be using it strictly at work or at home, both of which have wifi I connect to automatically. I might want to disable screen lock while driving, but so far have found my MotoX's Assist driving mode to work very well. I might get a Bluetooth device and at that point would probably want to disable the screen lock while that bluetooth device was connected.

Thanks in advance for any pointer to existing information or personal recommendations.

 

[garublador]

You may be able to do it in Tasker. Here's a search of the forum for the Tasker Google Group that might turn something up:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/tasker/disable$20lock

 

[gone down south]

Tasker and Llama are probably good places to start.

 

[Camilo]

Boy I scanned the thread referenced by garublador above and - to this semi-competent person - it's waaaaaay too complicated to automatically disable screen lock with Tasker - at least as far as I could tell. My stopping point is whenever there's jargon in the instructions that I don't understand! Don't know about Llama. I'm sure that this seems elementary to a lot of folks on this forum, but it's not the sort of stuff that a "plain old smart phone user" would be inclined to get into. Thanks anyway though, I do appreciate the assistance.

I went ahead and installed both of the apps I mentioned above that I'd seen in other threads - I installed Delayed Lock (trial version) on my Moto X and Unlock with Wi Fi (trial version) on the Samsung tablet. The Unlock with Wi Fi wouldn't install on the Moto X, fwiw ("not compatible with your device, App store wouldn't let me download it). I'll mess around with both and probably settle on the one that will install on both, unless there's a compelling reason to have different apps on the different devices.

Anyway, they both work so far - they disable the lock screen when on my home wifi. I'm going to travel both to my office tomorrow to see (1) if they enable the lock within a minute of leaving this wifi like they're supposed to and (2) if I can add a second wifi network.

The Unlock with WiFi seems a little simpler, but the Delayed Lock is simple enough, and I believe has more capabilities.

The Delayed Lock app by itself is just a method of delaying lock screen (temporarily disable it) when you want to, nothing automatic. For automatic functioning, you choose from additional plug ins which then allow you to automatically disable screen lock when on specified wifi networks, when on bluetooth, or when in certain locations. I installed all the plugins, and as would probably be expected, the app itself automatically adds the plug ins to its functionality (i.e. in the set up menus). It's really simple to set up, no more complicated than the various stock screen, security, etc. configuration settings on the device.

The Unlock with Wifi is super simple to set up for a given wifi network - you just identify that you're on the network and set it to kick in for that network.

I haven't tried geographic locations with either. So far, all I want out of them is that I don't have to unlock my phone when at home or at work, but it will be locked at other times.

Anyway, I wanted to report that it looks like these apps both work and are very simple for a non-techie to set up. Unless something odd happens, I plan to purchase the apps (just a couple or few bucks each) when the trial runs out. Probably stick with the one that works on both of my devices to keep my brain from overloading on app configurations.

 

[anon8164182]

I've been using Unlock With Wifi for a couple of weeks and, whilst it is very simple and works well most of the time, there's one huge problem: If you restart your phone it takes a while for it load, meaning that if someone stole your phone they could keep restarting it, thus gaining entry to any of your information.

If I restart my phone there's enough time to read an email or two in gmail. So it's basically useless. It's the best app like this I've found but I might give Tasker or Llama a go. I used to use Unlock at Home Using Wifi but that isn't compatible with JB.

 

[garublador]

Yeah, there's a steep learning curve with Tasker. It's super powerful, though and there's some pretty incredible things people have done with it. If you're interested, here's a really good beginner's guide:

Overview of Pocketables Tasker articles

Llama is supposedly easier (and free) but I haven't used it myself.

 

[anon8164182]

I've just tried Llama and it works pretty well for this unlocking on wifi business. I might see what else it can do...

 

[Camilo]

I just wanted to follow up on my two apps after about a week of using them. I haven't really given much effort in testing the "Unlock with WiFi" app, particularly the flaw noted by edithswanneck, since it's on my tablet and I haven't really traveled around with it lately. Since the other app works perfectly (see below), I'll probably just uninstall Unlock with Wifi and install the other one on my tablet.

On my MotoX, the "Delayed Lock" app works perfectly with the "WiFi" plug in.

I have it set to disable the lock when I'm on my home or work network. When I enter those networks after being away, the first time I rouse my phone, I have to unlock it, but then it stays unlocked until I leave the network.

When I leave the network, after a set amount of time (which you can determine in the settings), it re-locks and "un-enables" that part of the app until you re-enter a designated wifi network and unlock the phone when you're in it.
If I turn off the phone and then turn it back on, it opens directly to the unlock keypad, so I have to unlock the phone to use it whether I'm in a designated wifi network or anywhere else.

To "un-enable" and instantly lock the screen (what I used to do by pushing the power button), you simply touch the app notification in the pull down notification screen, and the phone locks. If you're in one of the designated wifi areas and you push the power button, it blanks the screen, but does not lock it.

SInce the app also allows you to set a time delay for re-locking after the last unlock or the last screen blank, which also works perfectly when I'm away from one of my designated wifi networks. If you really want to lock the phone instantly when you push the power button, I imagine you could set the above setting to lock the phone "0" seconds after last screen blank. Therefore when you push the button to blank the screen, it would also lock it. I'll probably try that later today.

So, this app does exactly what I wanted it to - simply keeps the phone unlocked when I'm on designated wifi networks and then resumes normal locking behavior when I leave that network, or when I tell it to. I went ahead and spent the $2.99 for the full, non trial version.

There's other plugin functionalities I have no need for, but might be of interest:

Bluetooth - which would keep the phone unlocked when connected to designated bluetooth devices -
Location - same functinality, but based on GPS location
Remote lock - allows you to lock or wipe your phone remotely by sending an SMS text message with a designated keyword. (I have this functionality through the motorola website, so I didn't enable it).

The wifi plugin also has a setting that allows you to it to turn the phone's wi-fi off to save battery when you leave the wifi network.

Hope this is of some value to someone. I think this thing works great.

 

[ljxdaly]

you may be able to do it with automateit or automateit pro.

much simpler to use than tasker. i use it to auto turn off wifi when i leave home and to turn it on when i return.