Get Paid to Unlock Your Phone: 7 Apps that Actually Pay You!

1. S’more

One of the most well-known lock screen apps, S’more (review) is a simple way to earn points toward rewards by opting to put ads and other content on your lock screen. S’more also offers more opportunities to earn points toward gift cards by completing surveys and completing offers to try other apps.

Sometimes they even reward you for watching videos!

Some of the gift cards you can get are:

• Game Stop
• Amazon
• Target
• CVS
• Starbucks

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

2. ScreenLift

ScreenLift is a lightweight alternative to other lock screen apps. Offering cash payments through PayPal within one to three business days of cashing out with no need to click on links or sign up for additional services, this one’s worth a try.

They also have a pretty cool referral program that most apps of these types don’t think to include.

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

3. Mint Screen (Previously Fronto)

Update: MintScreen is no longer available on Google Play Store.

In addition to giving you points for unlocking your phone, Mint Screen offers a scrolling feed of news and trends on your lock screen, as well as neat new wallpapers you can use. The app uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze the things you enjoy and then cater the ads you receive to those interests.

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

4. Slidejoy

Update: Slidejoy is no longer available on Google Play Store.

Registering with Slidejoy is an easy way to earn money without any hassle. Use their proprietary lock screen and every time you’ll be greeted with an ad, from which you can swipe right to get back to doing whatever you were doing beforehand.

Some features of the app are:

• Ability to check notifications on your screen, even while using this app
• Receive points from their system to redeem for either real money or gift cards
• See not only ads but also news on your lock screen
• News, deals, and ads are tailored to your preferences
• You are awarded daily points

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

5. MYTOZ

Update: MYTOZ is no longer available on Google Play Store.

“Save. Doing nothing,” is their slogan, and that’s sure an attractive offer, isn’t it? With the ability to list your interests so you get ads for things you’d actually like, MYTOZ is a neat way to passively earn points toward fun prizes. You basically get paid to watch ads. Even if you don’t click the ad or look at it for long, you’ll still get points passively.

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

6. ScreenKarma

Update: ScreenKarma is no longer available on Google Play Store.

Already have AppKarma, the popular rewards app? Now you can earn bonus points with its sister app, ScreenKarma, which adds points to your account for showing ads on your lock screen. The payout on this isn’t as high as other sites, but it can nicely cushion your appKarma account with more points if you already are an active member there.

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

7. Snore

Update: Snore is no longer available on Google Play Store.

With Snore, you can download their app to either earn points toward an Amazon gift card or toward charities like the Red Cross, Unicef, or Worldvision! You can earn bonus points by referring friends or by choosing websites to follow, which will show up on your lock screen’s feed.

Once you earn 20,000 coins you can start redeeming those towards gift cards. 10,000 coins are equivalent to $1 in their system.

Download the app:

• Available on: Google Play.

Apps that No Longer Work

While researching for this post, I noticed a lot of lock screen apps being mentioned most of which are no longer around.

Many of them are out of business (I think mainly because of the low profit margin for the owners. It’s great for use, users, but not so much for the app owners!). So I thought I’d add those apps here in case you were wondering what happened to the X app.

These are:

• Perk Screen
• Adme
• Whaff Locker:
• MooCash

I’ll update this post if any of them make a comeback or new players enter the market.

Closing Thoughts

I think one of the major downsides to these types of apps is that you can’t use more than one at a time. One of my favorite things to do, especially with receipt scanning apps (like these), is to stack rewards from multiple apps to maximize my profit. In this case, you can’t do that. You can only pick one app to use at a time. This might be something you want to keep in mind as you figure out which of these apps are going to work best for you.

Unfortunately, there are currently no lock screen apps available for iOS, as it’s not built for that kind of functionality (but there are a lot of other iPhone apps that make you money). Perhaps in the future, Apple will allow this kind of app. For now, if you are an Android user only you get to enjoy the ability to get paid by unlocking your phone.

The pay will never be enough to make a living off of, obviously, but I’m a strong believer that every little bit of extra money can really help you out in the long run. You just have to have patience and keep using one of these apps for a few months before you see any real rewards off it.

If you know of any other app or way to get paid for unlocking your phone, please let us know in the comments below.