UnTouch blocks little hands from commanding your device
UnTouch is an Android application that will allow you to hand your device over to a child without him or her being able to interact with anything on the device. If you’re familiar with guided access on iOS, this is a slightly more robust Android version.
If you’ve ever attempted to soothe someone else’s crying baby in the ER with his favorite show while your child, who’s up way past their bedtime, is intent on touching your phone, you’ll no doubt have noted a need for something to keep tiny little hands from breaking out of Netflix.
While the above is absurdly specific to a pool party accident I was at a couple of weeks ago, you can figure out less bloody uses for the app, I’m sure.
The method for unlocking is a set number of taps – the default is six in one second. You can change it lower if you’re unable to unlock it easily, but I find up to eight is easy once you get used to multi-touch tapping.
The app can keep the screen on, lock the orientation and volume, and – if your kid’s a sneaky one – it also has an unblock confirmation screen that they have to get past if you want it.
Oh, and it’s free. No ads.
Prevent little (or big,) fingers from breaking you out of YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, or simply cranking the volume.
The app is tiny, and only runs when you want it to. You turn it on, an icon appears in your status bar, and when you’re in the app you want to block you just swipe down, press that icon, and bam. Locked.
You might be wondering how you’re going to do that in an app that goes completely full screen like Netflix. There’s a delay timer for those style apps, as well.
If you manage to lock yourself out of your phone, you can always pull the battery or do a soft power cycle (power or power+vol up for 12 seconds.) But it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of unlocking it.
UnTouch is free, contains no ads, doesn’t ask for donations, and is probably useful for a lot more than keeping babies from breaking out of Netflix … but you’ll need to find those uses yourself.
Download: Google Play
