FocusEdgeThe school sends homework on WhatsApp. The worksheet is a PDF, the maths help is on YouTube, and the project needs a Google search. So your child asks for your phone, and your phone also has games, Instagram, your chats, your photos and GPay.
In short: Android has a few built-in ways to lock apps, and each one is useful. None of them lets your child use several study apps while everything else stays locked behind your PIN. That is what a study-mode app does.
What you want to lock
- Videos and games: YouTube, reels and games, where twenty minutes of homework turns into two hours.
- Social media: Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
- Your money: GPay, PhonePe, Paytm and your bank app. One wrong tap can send money or buy something inside a game.
- Your private things: WhatsApp, messages, email and photos.
- Settings and the Play Store: so nothing gets installed, removed or switched off.
- Unsafe websites: adult, violent and betting sites are one search away in any browser.
And you want the study apps to keep working: Google Classroom, Diksha, a PDF reader, the camera for photos of the notebook, and the websites the teacher sent.
Option 1: App pinning (built into Android)
App pinning keeps one app on the screen. Your child can't go to the home screen or open another app until it is unpinned.
- Open Settings and search for App pinning (on some phones it is called Screen pinning or Pin windows, under Security).
- Turn it on, and turn on Ask for PIN before unpinning.
- Open the study app, open the recent apps screen, tap the app's icon at the top of its card, and tap Pin.
Good for: one app, for example watching a single online class.
Where it falls short: it is one app only. Homework usually needs two or three, like the class app, the PDF and the camera, and you have to unpin and pin again for each. If you pin a browser, every website on the internet is open.
Option 2: Focus mode in Digital Wellbeing
Focus mode pauses the apps you pick, such as YouTube and Instagram, until it is turned off.
- Open Settings → Digital Wellbeing & parental controls → Focus mode.
- Choose the distracting apps and tap Turn on now.
Good for: keeping yourself off your own phone.
Where it falls short: there is no PIN. Anyone can turn it off from the quick settings panel in one tap, and it does nothing about websites. Every app you don't pick, including GPay and WhatsApp, stays open.
Option 3: Your phone's kids mode
Some phones, such as Samsung (Samsung Kids), come with a kids mode that has its own home screen and needs a PIN to exit.
Good for: young children playing on the phone.
Where it falls short: it is built for play, not homework, and not every phone has one. The browser is either fully open or fully closed, so you can't let in just the school's website. And it only protects the phone if you remember to turn it on.
Option 4: Google Family Link
Family Link is Google's parental control, and it is good at what it does. But it manages your child's own phone and Google account. It doesn't help when the phone is yours and you are handing it over for an hour.
Option 5: An app lock
An app lock puts a PIN on each app you choose. It works, but you have to lock every app one by one, including every new game that shows up later. Websites are still open in the browser. And your child sees a PIN screen on each app, so every attempt to open YouTube becomes a request. (More in App lock for kids.)
Side by side
| Several study apps at once | Needs your PIN to stop | Only the websites you pick | Blocks adult sites | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| App pinning | ✗ One app | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Focus mode | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Kids mode | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ All or none | Varies |
| App lock | ✓ | Per app | ✗ | ✗ |
| FocusEdge | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Always on |
How FocusEdge does it
We made FocusEdge for exactly this moment. You set it up once: pick the study apps and study websites, and set a PIN only you know. After that it is one switch.
- Turn on Study Mode and hand over the phone.
- Only the study apps and websites you picked will open. YouTube, games, Instagram, WhatsApp, GPay, Settings and the Play Store stay locked.
- Enter your PIN to turn it off. Your phone is back exactly as you left it.
Even when Study Mode is off, adult, violent and betting websites stay blocked, so the phone is protected when it's picked up from the table without asking. FocusEdge never reads your messages or photos, and never records which apps or websites were opened.