The screen on my smartphone is not cracked, but in the video below I show I was able to unlock my phone without touching the screen by using a Logitech K400r keyboard.

That said, there’s so much you have to do with a working screen before this method can help you out, that I think the keyboard/mouse technique—the “Easy Way”—is probably best.

You drop your phone and the screen shatters. Ugh. While you’ve probably been smart about putting your critical data on the cloud—right?—there might be some things you still want to extract ...

One new study has quantified just how easy an Android-style unlock pattern—as opposed to a six-digit PIN or biometric unlock—makes the job of any over-the-shoulder snoop.

You can unlock your Android phone even if you've forgotten the passcode, but you'll usually need to factory reset the phone.