App Lock: Protecting Individual Apps
App Lock adds a second layer of protection on top of your phone's screen lock, letting you secure specific apps individually with a PIN, pattern or fingerprint. It matters whenever a shared device, a lost phone or a nosy glance at your notifications could expose messages, photos or banking apps. Instead of locking the whole phone harder, you decide exactly which apps ask for extra verification before they open.
Manage App Permissions
Some apps on your Realme phone ask for access to storage, location, contacts or the camera the moment you open them, and a single tap can grant that access permanently. If you denied a permission by mistake, the app might crash, show a blank screen or refuse to save photos. Other apps keep running in the background with permissions you never actually reviewed.
Manage App Permissions in Permission Manager
If an app keeps reaching for your camera, microphone, or location without a clear reason, the cause is usually a permission you granted once and forgot about. On a Realme phone, permissions are grouped by function rather than by app, which makes it hard to spot which app holds which access at a glance. Checking the permission manager shows exactly which apps currently use each sensitive function.
Change Screen Lock Pattern, PIN or Password
If you want a stronger PIN or switch from a pattern to a password on your Realme phone, you don't have to turn off the lock screen first. The option to modify the current unlock method sits right inside the lock screen settings, but it's easy to miss if you're only looking for a toggle to disable security.
Show or Hide Password Characters While Typing
Typing a password on your Realme phone flashes each character for a split second before it turns into a dot, which can be risky if someone is looking over your shoulder. The Privacy settings let you control whether those characters ever appear on screen at all. This affects how easy it is to spot typos versus how private your input stays in public.
Screen Lock Options & Security Settings
Screen lock protects your Realme phone from unauthorized access whenever the display turns off. Realme UI offers several lock types, from a simple swipe to fingerprint and face recognition, each with a different balance of speed and security. Picking the right method affects how fast you get into your phone and how safe your personal data stays.
Change Privacy Password
If your privacy password still uses the PIN you picked during setup, or you want to switch to a pattern or a longer password instead, you don't have to reset hidden apps or the private safe first. On Realme UI, the privacy password protects separate features from your screen lock, and updating it keeps everything you already hid in place.
Turn On/Off Find My Device
If your Realme phone does not show up on Google's Find My Device map, tracking is likely switched off in your security settings. This often happens after a factory reset, a new setup, or when the location permission was never confirmed. Without it active, you cannot remotely locate, lock, or erase the phone if it gets lost or stolen.
Delete a Fingerprint
If an old fingerprint still unlocks your Realme phone after you sold it, lent it out, or just added too many entries, the fingerprint list under Password & biometrics needs a cleanup. Leftover prints from previous users or unused fingers keep unlock access open even after you change your screen lock. Realme UI keeps every registered fingerprint active until you delete it manually.
Turn On/Off Activity Controls
By default, Realme phones keep sending your Google activity data back to Google so it can personalize services across your account. Web & App Activity, YouTube History and Ad personalization all run quietly in the background unless you open the settings yourself. Most people never notice how much is being logged until they check this menu.
Set Up Fingerprint Unlock
Unlocking your Realme phone with a PIN or pattern every time gets tedious fast, especially when you only want to glance at the screen. Fingerprint Unlock lets the sensor recognize you instantly, but it only works once a fingerprint is actually registered under Password & biometrics. Without that step, the sensor stays inactive and Realme UI keeps asking for your backup unlock method.
Set Up App Lock for Individual Apps
Anyone who picks up your unlocked Realme phone can open banking apps, messengers, or your gallery without a second check. App lock closes that gap by asking for an extra password before a chosen app opens, but the option only appears once a privacy password exists on the device. Without that password set first, the switch for locking individual apps stays inactive.
Turn On/Off Emergency Alerts
If your Realme phone keeps buzzing with alerts you never opted into, or if severe weather warnings suddenly stop showing up, the Wireless emergency alerts settings control which categories reach you. Extreme threats, Severe threats, and AMBER-style notices each have their own switch, tone, and vibration setting tucked inside Security. Missing one toggle is usually the reason alerts feel either too loud or completely silent.
Set Up Screen Lock with Pattern, PIN or Password
If your realme phone still opens with a simple swipe, anyone who picks it up gets full access to your apps, photos and messages. Realme UI offers four lock types - Pattern, a 4-digit PIN, a longer 4-16 digit password, or an alphanumeric password - each with a different trade-off between speed and protection. Picking the wrong one often means either unlocking too slowly or leaving the device too easy to guess.
Privacy Password: A Separate Lock for Apps and Hidden Files
A Privacy Password on Realme phones works independently from your screen lock and shields specific apps, hidden photos, and private folders from anyone who unlocks the device itself. It becomes relevant the moment you hand your phone to someone else but still want certain content off limits. Setting it up also means dealing with recovery options in case you ever forget it.
Set Up Face Recognition for Screen, App Lock and Private Safe
If you only enabled Face unlock for the lock screen, apps like banking or gallery still ask for a PIN every time you open them. On Realme phones the same facial scan can also protect individual apps or the Private Safe, but each use case needs to be switched on separately.
Add Trusted Devices to Smart Lock
If your Realme phone locks again the moment you step away from your smartwatch, Smart Lock's trusted devices option is probably not set up yet. This feature keeps the lock screen skipped as long as a paired Bluetooth device, like a smartwatch, stays in range. It only works once the device has been paired over Bluetooth first, so a missing or failed pairing is usually the reason it does not trigger.
Allow or Deny System Settings Modification Permission
If a music player cannot change your ringtone automatically, or a launcher fails to switch your wallpaper without you opening it manually, the Modify system settings permission is usually the missing piece. Realme UI treats this as a special access because it lets an app adjust things like brightness, ringtone, or wallpaper without a confirmation prompt every time. Denying it forces the app to ask again or fail silently when it tries to apply changes on its own.
Enable or Disable On-body Detection
If your Realme phone keeps unlocking itself while it sits in your pocket or you are just holding it, Smart Lock's On-body detection is the reason. This feature relies on the motion sensor to keep the lock screen inactive whenever the phone is being carried, regardless of who is carrying it. That means it never checks your identity, so anyone who takes the phone from your hand gets in without a PIN or password.
Turn On/Off Emergency SOS Quick Access
Pressing the Power button five times by accident can trigger an emergency call you never meant to make. On Realme phones this happens because Emergency call quick access is turned on by default and dials a preset regional emergency number. If you keep hitting this shortcut without wanting to, the setting needs to be switched off - or checked if it silently stopped working when you actually need it.
Turn Off App Lock
Once App lock is active on your Realme phone, every protected app asks for your privacy password before it opens, even for quick checks you no longer want locked. Removing the feature only works with the correct privacy password on hand. If you plan to reset or sell the phone, an active App lock can also get in the way unless you switch it off first.
Fingerprint Unlock: How It Works and What It Protects
Fingerprint unlock lets you open your Realme phone and confirm actions with a touch instead of typing a code. It ties into app locks, payment confirmations, and the vault, so one registered fingerprint can secure several parts of the system at once. Knowing how the sensor reads your finger helps you avoid failed scans and keep the feature reliable long-term.
Set Up a Privacy Password
If App Lock or the Private Safe on your Realme phone suddenly asks for a password you never created, that is the privacy password, and it works independently from your screen lock. Both can use a PIN, pattern or password, which makes them easy to mix up. Until you set the privacy password up, you cannot lock individual apps or open the private storage area.
Unlock Private Safe with Fingerprint
Typing a password or PIN every time you check the Private Safe on your Realme phone gets tedious fast. The safe hides files and apps behind its own lock screen, separate from the phone unlock, and by default only accepts that password, pattern or PIN. A quick fingerprint shortcut can replace most of those manual entries.