Dear friends and partners,

We are thrilled to share that Tella's latest security feature, 'Restrict unlocking attempts', is for beta testing on both Android and iOS.

🔐 What is it?

By going to Settings ⚙️ > Security > Delete after Failed Unlock, you can decide how many failed unlock attempts are allowed before everything inside Tella is deleted.

By default, this setting is Off, which means unlock attempts are not restricted and data will not be deleted. You can choose to restrict unlocking attempts to 5, 10, or 20. If you choose any of these options, you can also select whether to display a visual indicator on the unlock screen 3 attempts before the specified number ("3 attempts remaining", "2 attempts remaining", etc.), or to show no visual indicator at all.

After the specified number of failed attempts, all files, server connections, and everything in Tella will be deleted, and you will go back to the "freshly installed" state of the app, where you will be able to create a new lock.

🙋‍♀️ A long awaited feature

This feature was added after we received numerous requests from users who wanted to make sure adversaries wouldn't be able to try unlocking their app indefinitely.

This was also highlighted in our latest security audit:

Both applications permit unlimited authentication attempts, which increase the risk of unauthorized access through successful guessing of the unlock credential. This risk is most emphasized with the weaker authentication methods, such as PIN or pattern sequence on Android.

We are excited to finally get this addressed and offer this extra security to our community!

⚠️ Security considerations

While this security setting prevents brute force unlocking attempts to enter Tella, it should be used with caution, as there is no way to restore the content of Tella once the maximum number of failed unlocking attempts is reached.

👀 Test it now

You can see the feature in action in this short video or test it yourself by becoming a beta tester:

  • Android: Sign up on the Google Play Store using this link from your Android device or this link from your web browser.
  • iOS: Sign up on the App Store opening this link from your iPhone.

We'd love to hear your feedback!