Safe World — User guide (Android)

1 First run: choose a PIN and save your recovery code

Safe World asks for a PIN before anything else, so protection is never switched on with nothing guarding it. Immediately after, it shows a recovery code — the only way back in if you forget the PIN.

Choose a PIN screen with PIN and Confirm PIN fields — **Choose a PIN.** At least 4 digits. You'll need it to turn protection off or unblock anything later.

Save your recovery code screen showing a 20-character code — **Save your recovery code.** Shown once and never again — it's stored scrambled, so nobody can look it up. Write it down.

Purpose: Stops a moment of weakness from undoing your own setup. The PIN is friction you chose while thinking clearly.
If you forget: Tap Forgot your PIN? on any prompt and enter the recovery code. That code is then used up, and a fresh one is issued.
Lost both?: Only clearing the app's data resets it — which also wipes every setting and the uninstall friction.

2 Turn protection on

The single switch that starts and stops all website blocking. Android will ask once for VPN permission — that "VPN" runs entirely on your phone and connects to no server.

Home screen with Protection switch off — OFF The card is grey and says plainly: **nothing is being blocked**.

Home screen with Protection on showing 4.4 million blocked — ON Turns purple and states the exact count — **4,430,965 sites**, updated automatically.

Turning on: Free — one tap.
Turning off: Asks for your PIN.
Purpose: The card deliberately never claims protection while the switch is off. An app that says "4.4 million blocked" above a dead switch is the exact lie this one refuses to tell.

3 See it working: bad site blocked, normal site fine

Blocking happens at the lookup stage, so a blocked site never loads at all — you get the browser's own "can't be reached" page, and none of its content is ever fetched.

Wikipedia article loading normally with protection on — **Wikipedia loads normally.** Ordinary browsing is untouched — this is not a whitelist.

Browser showing site cannot be reached for a blocked real-money card game site — **A real-money card-game site is refused** — `DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN`. Nothing from the site is downloaded or shown.

Why it looks like an error: Because it is one, on purpose: the phone is told the address doesn't exist. That's cheaper and more private than intercepting pages.
Covers: Every app and browser on the phone, not just Chrome.
Limits: Sites reached by raw IP, or apps using their own encrypted lookups, can slip past. Block apps (section 6) closes that.

4 Block more: social media, entertainment, games

Three optional categories, all off by default. These are the ones you add because you want them — so switching one on never asks for anything.

TikTok loading before the toggle — **Before:** with the switch off, TikTok opens normally.

TikTok refusing to load after the toggle — **After:** same phone, same browser, switch on — refused.

Turning on: Free.
Turning off: Asks for your PIN.
Never blocked: Messaging apps are never blocked, so a protected phone can still reach family.

5 Add your own websites

Anything the categories don't cover, blocked by name.

Add websites field with comma-separated domain entry and Save button — **Type domains separated by commas.** Subdomains are included automatically — `example.com` also covers `shop.example.com`.

Adding: Free — saving a list that keeps everything it had goes straight through.
Removing: Asks for your PIN, because saving a shorter list is a weakening.

6 Block apps, not just their websites

Some apps never make ordinary web lookups, so blocking their website does nothing. This stops the apps themselves from reaching the internet.

The trade-off: Safe World must check every connection the phone makes, not just web lookups. That uses more battery, and the app asks before turning it on.
Still private: All checking happens on the phone. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Never blocked: Messaging apps, so a blocked phone can still reach family.
Unblocking: Asks for your PIN.

7 Make protection stick (always-on VPN)

Android allows only one VPN at a time — so installing any other VPN app silently switches Safe World off. This is the only way to prevent that, and only you can turn it on.

Make protection stick section explaining always-on VPN, plus uninstall protection below — **Open VPN settings**, tap the gear next to Safe World, then turn on **both** switches: *Always-on VPN* and *Block connections without VPN*.

What it does: Android itself starts Safe World, and refuses to pass any traffic while it isn't running.
Why it's outside the app: Android deliberately won't let an app grant this to itself — it has to be you, in system settings.
If it happens anyway: Safe World notices, warns you it stopped filtering, and names the other VPN as the likely cause.

8 Uninstall protection

Makes Safe World harder to delete in a moment of temptation.

Android Activate device admin app prompt for Safe World — **Android's own confirmation.** Note what it says: Safe World asks for *no other permission* — it cannot lock, wipe, or monitor the device.

What it does: Registers as a device admin, so Android refuses to uninstall the app while it's on.
Honest limit: It is friction, not a lock — the app itself says so. It can still be removed from Android's settings.
Turning off: Asks for your PIN, and you're warned if it ever gets switched off without you.

9 What the PIN actually gates

The same prompt appears everywhere something would reduce protection — and nowhere else.

Turn off protection PIN prompt with Forgot your PIN link — **Every weakening funnels through this one dialog**, so no screen can accidentally skip the gate.

Asks for PIN: Turning protection off · turning a category off · unblocking apps · removing sites you added · changing what's always allowed · disabling uninstall protection.
Never asks: Anything that blocks more.
Wrong guesses: Too many attempts locks the prompt for a while. The recovery code is exempt — being locked out is exactly when you'd need it.

10 Settings: language, PIN, always-allow, updates

The second tab. Everything here is housekeeping rather than blocking.

Settings screen showing language options and PIN section — **Language** (English, বাংলা, Español, العربية, or follow the phone) and **Change PIN** / **new recovery code**.

Always allow list and rate the app section — **Always allow** — one domain per line. This *wins over everything*, including the categories, so it's PIN-gated.

App version section showing an available update — **App version.** Checks for a newer build and installs it, with Android asking permission first.

11 Optional: download the extra lists

Offered once, on first run. Some blocklists can't legally be bundled inside the app, so your device fetches them from the people who maintain them.

Block even more sites offer screen — **About 927 thousand more sites, ~18 MB**, downloaded over Wi-Fi when possible. **Not now** is a real answer — the app works fully without them.

Bundled lists: Work offline, forever, with no network call at all.
What's sent: Nothing about you. Your device downloads a list; it never uploads what you browse.

Every switch in Safe World, and what it actually does.

The whole app, narrated.