Screen Pinning: What It Is and How to Use It

Back when Android Lollipop launched, Google introduced "Screen pinning" feature which temporarily locks specific app, and you cannot access any other apps, cannot see notifications, or return to the home screen, until a specific shortcut is tapped to take you out of it.

You may consider yourself a Android master, but chances are even you've forgotten Screen Pinning feature. When Screen Pinning is active, the following behavior happens:

• The status bar is blank, and user notifications and status information are hidden.
• The Home and Recent Apps buttons are hidden.
• Other apps cannot launch new activities.
• The current app can start new activities, as long as doing so does not create new tasks.
• If screen pinning is activity by another app that is not a device owner or by the user directly, the user can exit by holding both the Back and Recent buttons.

Screen pinning feature could be extremely useful, for example, when playing games, you may accidentally tap the home button or back button. This may kill some games, at least it can be very annoying.

How to enable screen pinning on your Android Device?

By default, screen pinning is not enabled. To enable this feature you may follow these steps.

Step 1: Go to Settings > Security and go to Advanced section to enable Screen pinning at the bottom of the list. (Note: You can also set password to protect the screen pinning).

Step 2: After enabling it, open the Recent apps screen and tap on the little push-pin button in the lower right corner of the front-most card to get started.

Tap and hold back button to exit screen pinning. If you request password for unpinning when pinning the app, you will be directed to the lock screen to proceed.