Files by Google app has been updated with a new Secure Folder feature to protect your most confidential files with a PIN.
How is Files by Google safe?
The secure folder is one of the features that has been present in many layers of personalization for years. These types of folders allow us to keep our most confidential files or applications away from prying eyes, even people who have full access to our mobile.
The standard version of Android did not have this type of benefits until today, and that is that the Google Files application finally begins to deploy its safe folder option, although at the moment it is not available to everyone.
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Files from Google has a new Secure Folder feature
The beta version of Files by Google has added a new option called a secure folder, an encrypted folder that we can only access with a security PIN that we have established, preventing anyone from accessing our most confidential files.
This folder is found in the Collections section in the Explore tab, and when we click on it we can establish a PIN with which we will access.
How do you add files to the secure folder?
- From Files itself, when we explore a file, if we click on the drop-down menu we will see an option called Move to the safe folde.
- To add a file to the secure folder we will have to confirm the PIN, a logical option to prevent anyone from adding files without discretion to that folder.
- Once we add the file, it will disappear from the conventional folder and will only be available in the secure folder. Obviously, within the secure folder we can reverse the process so that it is accessible again throughout the mobile.
- From the settings we can choose and change the PIN of the secure folder.
- Once the adjustment is reached, you will have to enter a PIN. Here the most tempting option is to put the same PIN that you have on the phone, but if your goal is that nobody can access this folder, what you have to do is create a different PIN.
And why do we have to use a different PIN than the one we have on our mobile? Because precisely, the mobile PIN is already a first barrier. To get to the secure folder, it is necessary to have the mobile phone unlocked, so it is very likely that whoever has reached this folder already knows our PIN, and the first PIN they will try to use is the one they already know.
Secure folder feature is starting to roll out in the app’s beta version, so it’s a matter of weeks before it starts reaching everyone. If you are interested, you can sign up for the betas program from here. Once enrolled, download Files from Google Play. You will know that it is the correct version because now in the name it puts (beta).
