Security means everything to me. I am that guy who uses two step authentication on everything, along with safety backups and more. When it comes to security on Android, things aren’t as tight as I would like them to be. On my S6, my favorite thing to use is the fingerprint scanner. I am aware that the fingerprint scanner does not offer better security than a strong password or lock pattern (although you could easily bypass the Android Lockscreen pattern), however, it will deter most people from trying to snoop around in my phone. Android Lollipop also features a security feature called “Trusted Devices.”
The trusted devices feature will allow your phone to enable the lock code when your trusted device (or wifi network) is out of range. If you don’t have Lollipop, there is an app that will allow you to achieve similar features. When it is in range, your lock screen will not be activated. For most people, this offers a lot of convenience with a small sense of security. Not exactly for me. I want total control. I needed a way that I could manually lock my phone from my watch. Unfortunately, stock android wear allows no such option, so I had to resort to using Tasker. Okay, enough rambling, here’s how to lock phone from Android wear.
What You Will Need:
- Tasker
- AutoWear
- Secure Settings
Step 1: Device Administrators
Before we do anything, you will need to enable secure settings under device administrators. The location of this slightly varies on each phone and version of Android. For my Galaxy S6, it is located at Lock Screen & Security –> Other Security Settings –> Device Administrators
Step 2: Setting up the Tasker Task
Inside of Tasker, go to the Tasks tab and create a new task. Name it whatever you like. It will prompt you for an action. Click the add button and go to plugin then secure settings. Afterwards, click the edit button next to configuration.
It will bring you inside of the secure settings app. From there select Dev Admin Actions then select _Lock Device _and hit the save button. Now the task is ready to be linked to a profile.
Step 3: Setting up the Tasker Profile
Go to the profiles tab in Tasker. Add the AutoWear profile by going to Event –> Plugin –> AutoWear. The hit the edit button next to configuration. Select command filter and type in the phrase that you want to trigger your lock task.
I am simply going to use “lock” (without the quotation marks). I am also going to select the option Exact so that it will only react whenever I exactly say that phrase. Hit the check button to save. It will bring you back to the configuration screen. Nothing needs to be changed here, just go back to the profiles tab. The last thing to do is to link your lock task to the AutoWear profile. That’s it, the final thing to do is to configure AutoWear.
Step 4: Configuring AutoWear
Open the AutoWear app on your phone. Go to screens and add a new screen.
Screens are the only way that you are able to interact with AutoWear on your device because AutoWear cannot use the default Google Now integration. Go toe the commands to show tab and choose to add new commands. The app listens for certain events on your watch that will trigger the screen so that you can say your command. I like to use shake as the command. You can also use one of the app launcher commands such as “Open Jarvis” (I love Iron Man). Finally, you can also add predefined choices. So you can have the lock command be a predefined choice so that you don’t have to say it. Lastly, you can also add a cancellation screen if you so desire. Hit the check button to save the screen and you are all set to go.
Step 5: Android Wear
Since I choose the shake command, all I have to do is shake my watch and the Android wear screen will display. From there I can say “lock” and will recognize the command, send it to tasker, and lock my device.
A word of advice, if you are using the shake command, go into the autowear settings on your watch and setup the shake threshold. If not, every nuanced arm movement will cause the autowear app to open.
If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below!