Device advice: how to stop your phone going into lockdown

The issue: Once upon a time, making magic happen with a few keystrokes felt like the height of futuristic. Now, even having to unlock your phone to do something feels like an imposition on your basic human right to “not have to deal”. In this spirit, developers are creating new widgets and apps that you can use without unlocking your device.

The smarts: First up, there are the games. Play on Minesweeper’s widget edition, which enables iOS users to play the procrastination classic without unlocking the screen. The same developers have created Overglide, which is similar to Flappy Birds — and you also don’t need to unlock your device to play.

ScreenPop is an Android app that riffs on Snapchat: share a pic with a pal straight from your lock screen and it will appear on their device’s lock screen, and disappear when they unlock their phone. Android has also created Locket, which selects news and stories from the web based on your swiping habits, and presents them to you on your lock screen so you can view this tailored news-in-brief without unlocking your phone. You can save content for later if you don’t have time to view it.

Apple is new to the widget game but has focused its attentions on them in its newest operating system, iOS8. Apple widgets can be accessed by swiping downward from the top of the lock screen to find the Notification Centre, where you can see preview versions of many of your apps, including headlines from new sites and primitive versions of apps such as Argus (a health app — the widget version serves as a pedometer) and Citymapper (its widget version is a compass which tells you how many miles you are from home). You still have to enter the phone to use the main apps but they’re useful tasters.

The verdict: Apps are no longer in lockdown — another second saved.

@phoebeluckhust