Got something to hide? Loky is the sneakiest app we’ve ever seen

TNW Quick Look

If you have a part of your life you’d rather keep secret from others, Loky could be the perfect Android app for you. It keeps private contacts, messages and files hidden in a PIN-code protected locker.

Hits:

• Great way of keeping secrets on your phone.
• Lots of sneaky security features.

Misses:

• Occasional slowness.
• Only available for Android right now.

The details

Billed as a way to “Keep your private life private”, Loky for Android acts as a PIN code-protected store for contacts, SMS messages and files you’d rather weren’t in obvious places on your phone.

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

Here’s how it works – if one of your ‘secret’ contacts sends you a message, it doesn’t show up in the regular Messages app at all. Instead, it’s stored within Loky – ready for you you read and reply to when prying eyes aren’t around. If you want to keep certain files on your phone private (maybe incriminating photos or a video), they can be hidden within Loky too. Photos can even be taken from within Loky, meaning they never hit your main photo gallery in the first place.

Loky really is the sneakiest app I’ve ever used. You can get it to send a ‘dummy’ SMS (the default option is a fake spam text from a mobile phone retailer) to the main Messages app so you know when a new secret message has arrived. There’s even a ‘Dummy’ PIN code which loads a fake version of the app which you can load up with innocent data.

If you get taken by surprise and need to close it Loky a hurry, you can just shake your phone for a couple of seconds to close the app. Meanwhile, the app locks itself if left unattended for even a few seconds, although if that annoys you, you can adjust the auto-lock time.

It feels a little odd to recommend an app clearly designed for people who are cheating on their partners, but it could also be useful if you’re applying for a new job and don’t want to be caught out by your current boss, or if you’re a teenager whose parents like to keep tabs on your (actually quite mundane) life.

Loky is nicely executed and works exactly as advertised, although I did spot slow response times occasionally when entering my PIN code and it crashed on me once.

While currently only available for Android at a price of £2.99, the UK-based developers promise iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Phone 7 versions “very soon”.