We live in a social era. Everyone has accounts on the biggest social media sites, and we routinely connect with others and give away information for the whole world to see. But, how would you feel if someone else was posting on your accounts without knowing it? How would you feel if someone was taking a peek at your social media accounts while you sat your phone down?
Social Media Vault is here to keep all of our accounts protected.
Today we never log out of our apps and it’s unreasonable to think that when you hand your phone over to someone to check the weather that you’ll first need to go to the apps for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and others to log out first. How inconvenient.
Developer: NewSoftware.net
Price: Free with ads
Highlights:
- Easy setup process
- Several security features to choose from
- 55 networks supported
- Quick locking
- App icon hiding
- Private browsing
Setup
Setup is very, very simple. This app definitely makes it as easy as possible for you to get in and start setting up your social networks. When the app is launched, you’re taken to a screen that gives you a little run-down on all the big features of the app.
After you progress past that, you’re asked to choose either a pin, password or pattern. I’d really like to see fingerprint support here to add another layer of protection. Once you choose your code of choice, you’re taken into a list of all the social networks you can log in to. Some are quick and easy like Twitter and Facebook, others require a little more work. I’ve still yet to get Instagram working because I use my Facebook login. The app (or Instagram) doesn’t like me logging in from this internal browser.
Features
To understand the features of Social Media Vault, you need to understand what it is first. The creators didn’t spend thousands of hours creating an app that has a unique interface for each social media network like you’d find in their first party app. What they’ve done is incorporated a browser where you can log into the mobile site version of app your social media networks. This has some advantages, but some disadvantages too.
The first big advantage is the panic switch. The panic switch will allow you to set up a gesture to immediately lock the app and take you to either your web browser or the home screen. This is wonderful if you’re trying to keep your social media browsing on the DL. This feature will require you to pick up the premium pack for $2. The listing in the Play Store is a tad bit deceptive as it makes it seem like this is an included feature.
Another great feature is what the creators call “Anti-Hack”. Anti-Hack simply takes a picture with the front facing camera when you enter the wrong password. I would have paid good money for this feature in my early 20s when my friends liked to “hack” my social media accounts and post dumb things.
If you want to entirely hide your networks from any snooping eyes, you can choose to hide the app icon altogether. This is a great way to remove the ability for prying eyes to guess your passcode or pin. All you need to do is open up the dialer and press *8800 and hit send and you’re back in your app to enter your passcode. Easy enough.
Concerns
Social Media Vault contains a “secure” browser. I honestly have no idea how secure this browser is. Do I have any indication that they’re recording what you search for and selling that data? Nope. Have companies done things like that before? Yep.
I would really hesitate to use this private browser for things that are actually private. Google has a pretty good private browsing mode baked right into Chrome that I feel much more comfortable using. Google knows all about me already anyway.
The ads are also a little in your face. Every time you resume the app, set up a new social network or switch to a different network, you’re greeted with a full-screen ad. They’re easy to dismiss, but they do get very annoying after a while. Add on a nagging rating screen and things can get frustrating fast.
Ad within the app
Conclusion
I think the idea behind Social Media Vault is a great one. We’re all striving for better control of our social media platforms and this is the next logical step; controlling who can see them on your phone. My problem is the idea is a little half-baked. You’re giving up a lot with an app like this, and the first thing that comes to mind is notifications. You’re never going to get a push notification if you only use this app for your social media. Some people will see that as a positive.
But, my big concern is privacy. This app is designed to give you privacy, but what are they doing with your browsing data? We may never actually know. Since this app is free to use almost every feature in it, are they making enough off the pro feature ($2) and ads to resist selling that information?
Download Social Media Vault from the Play Store