Turn off Android 4.2's Lockscreen widgets

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 25, 2012
Apps, Google Android
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2

A so called lock screen is displayed when you lock your phone manually or when it gets automatically locked after a certain inactivity period. The sole purpose of lock screens in the past was to disable access to the device, smartphone or desktop operating system for instance, until a user account password is entered to unlock the device again.

Modern operating systems like Windows 8 or Google's Android 4.2 come with options to display additional information on the lock screen. The Android lock screen in previous versions of the operating system only displays the date and time, and a couple of information like the device's battery status or wireless reception at the top.

This changes with Android 4.2 and the support for lock screen widgets. The idea behind the feature is to make available certain information and features of the phone even if the phone or tablet is locked. This for instance gives you camera access even if the device is locked which I suppose is an interesting option. There are widgets on the other hand that provide access to sensible information like calendar or Gmail.

Some users may want to disable the lock screen widget feature of their Android 4.2 device. Lockscreen Policy is a free application for Android 4.2 and newer devices that you can use to disable various lockscreen related features.

lockscreen policy android

To use the application do the following:

  1. Run application
  2. Make selections, and press activate
  3. In the 'Activate device administrator' screen, choose 'Activate'
  4. Turn off undesired features using the toggle switches. Changes are made instantly. Make sure your lockscreen is enabled to see the results.

The two core features that Lockscreen Policy makes available is to disable access to the device's camera when the phone is locked, and to all lockscreen widgets that are available for it.

The author of the application notes that music notifications will still appear on the lockscreen which is a limitation of Android 4.2 which can't be changed at the moment. According to some reviews it may also get rid of the annoying sidebar flash when the phone gets unlocked.

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