Ever needed to hand your Android smartphone
to someone else for a while? If yes, then there's a
good chance that you were worried about how
easily they could go through your personal data
or end up changing preferences or even deleting
information like contacts or messages. Fortunately, Android 5.0 Lollipop ships with a
system-level guest mode. This lets you quickly
switch to a separate guest profile that doesn't
have any of your personal data such as
messages, installed apps or preferences. This is
as good as a fresh install of Android 5.0 Lollipop and the moment you switch back to your Google
account, all data saved in the guest mode is
removed. This makes it a particularly effective
way of letting someone else use your phone for
a while. Here's how to enable guest mode on Android 5.0
Lollipop. 1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to pull
down the notifications bar. 2. Tap your avatar on the top right twice. 3. Now you'll see three icons - your Google
account, Add guest and Add user. 4. Tap Add guest. 5. Now your smartphone will switch to guest
mode. This may take some time and the
phone may be slightly slow initially, but in our
tests with a Nexus 5 it worked well after a
few minutes. 6. When you're done with guest mode, you can
easily revert to your Google account. Follow
steps 1 and 2 above and tap the icon that
shows your Google account. This will delete
all data saved in the guest session as well. If your smartphone doesn't have Android 5.0
Lollipop installed, you should check for a pre-
loaded guest mode. Some brands such as Xiaomi,
LG, Samsung and Huawei pre-load an app that
enables you to use guest mode on your
smartphone. Different brands name this app differently, so look in your phone's app drawer
for apps with names similar to Kids' Mode or
Guest Mode. Some Android phones have guest
mode embedded at the system level. For
example the LG G3 has a guest mode that you can access by going to Settings > General > Privacy > Guest Mode . If your phone doesn't have this feature, the most
effective way to keep your personal data safe is
by locking down certain apps.