this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2026
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On iOS you can set an app to require additional credentials to open, to prevent this situation. I'd imagine Android had something similar. I did it for all my important apps, just in case. Don't want someone able to access my bank account ~~or nudes~~.
You can lock Signal. It's in it's privacy settings.
If someone can get unlocked access to your phone, your security practices are already insufficient. If you really want to prevent something like this, you need to make this first step impossible, not add a bandaid on top of it.
Real life isn't that clean. Security is about layers and making things as difficult as possible; there is never a single step which will fully protect you from everything
Some android custom UIs have this. Signal has this built in though.
Doesn't help a whole lot if you hand the unlocked phone with the unlocked app to a police officer.
Because if you do, you just got Cellebrite'd. Your entire phone is compromised, now and going forward.
Just poked around. As far as I can tell there aren't any options to require additional credentials to open an app on android. Im on a pixel 10 running android 17. However there is a locked "app drawer" that hides the apps from your home screen/ main app drawer that you need to have an additional password to access.
It s litteraly on the signal option "Require acces code to open signal"
Yes, but that's a signal option, not an android option. The original commenters said ios had a feature to require additional credentials and was wondering about android, not a specific app that happens to be on android
Some Android devices has app lock build in.
I have App Locker in settings iy let's me use a fingerprint unlock on any apps I want, I assume it's a stock Android feature.
guess what.
There's Private Space, but that's not ideal for a general-purpose messaging app because notifications are suspended when the space is locked. Signal also has the option to require the same authentication method as your screen lock in order to access the app.
All of this is great, but there's literally nothing stopping the next article from saying "user who left their phone unlocked with signal also unlocked 'got hacked'"
User who installed App in Phone found to have App data in Phone! More at eleven.