Remote Lock Screen Unlock on Android

There are many ways to keep your phone from prying eyes: Pin codes, Pass Phrases, Pattern, Face Recognition, NFC, & Fingerprint. I think unlock using fingerprint or touchID is the most convenient and safest method of them all.

Unlocking via facial recognition, many say, is easy to bypass. Just have a clear picture of the owner in front of the phone and you can gain access. Pin Code is fairly safe but it’s easy to pick up when you’re being observed. The pattern unlock leaves smudge marks and, in my opinion, much worse than Pin or facial recognition unlock methods. Unlocking via fingerprint recognition, while not guaranteed secure, seems to be most practical. This usually is backed by an on-boot unlock method: Pin, Pattern, Passphrase; an added security measure. This means you will have to first unlock a phone using an on-boot unlock method before registered prints will work. But what if you forgot your passphrase because you have gotten used to unlocking your phone using your fingerprint? Say, you drained your phone and after turning it back on, you are prompted to enter the secure passphrase you’ve set last month? What now? Sure you can do a factory reset by going through recovery mode and re-sync your smartphone later on, but that’s just too much hassle.

For Android Lollipop (Version 5), Marshmallow, there’s no in-built method to reset a forgotten passcode; which is actually a good thing. You are forced to go to a device command and control service to either reset the passcode or lock and erase the phone.

Method 1: Bypass passcode using Android Device Manager

Google has an Android Device Manager service that allows you to change the passcode of a device so long as it’s using a google account with sync enabled and is online. Locking the phone entails a password reset which, in effect, allows you to use a new passcode.

Method 2: Bypass passcode using Samsung Find My Mobile

Samsung provides a similar service. If you did not use a google account for apps and backup, you probably created a Samsung account if you own a Samsung Smartphone. Samsung also allows you to unlock your device by setting the unlock method to swipe (no security).

All this can be done remotely through a computer or another smartphone. All you need is either access to the Google account or to the Samsung account for the Smartphone. Very convenient if your suspicious girlfriend refuses to dress sexy for you unless you let check the mobile device you left at home. Note: these remote command and control services do not let you to selectively erase messages; you’re on your own there.

All these compel us to ensure that access to either Samsung or Google account is secure; that the passphrases used for these accounts are strong. We all want to avoid that paranoid possessive partner from gaining access to our mobile devices.