Think about what someone would see if they picked up your unlocked phone and opened your budgeting app: every account balance, every transaction, where you shop, what you owe, what you’re saving for. That’s not “some app data.” That’s a portrait of your life.
So we did what your banking app does, and what a budgeting app frankly always should have. Buoy now locks behind your fingerprint or face.
Two taps, two different jobs
There are two things people mean by “use my fingerprint,” and Buoy does both.
Fingerprint unlock. Turn it on and Buoy asks for your fingerprint (or Face ID) every time you open the app, and again if you’ve been away for a couple of minutes. Peek at the app switcher and you won’t even see your balances, because the preview is blanked out. It’s the same instinct as locking your phone, applied to the one app that maps your whole financial life.
Fingerprint sign-in. For email-and-password accounts, skip typing the password entirely. Enable it once and the login screen just asks for your fingerprint. If you sign in with Google or Apple, you already tap a button and have no password to replace, so this one is just for password accounts.
Turn either on in Settings, under Security. Buoy labels it Fingerprint or Face ID to match your device.
It never leaves your phone
Here’s the part that matters: your fingerprint and face are never sent to us. Buoy doesn’t see them, store them, or transmit them. Your phone’s operating system does the verification locally and simply tells the app “yes, it’s them.” We designed it that way on purpose. The most private thing about you shouldn’t have to travel anywhere to keep your budget private.
And because the unlock is a local gate over your session, it works offline and for every kind of account, whether you signed in with Google, Apple, or email. On a plane with no signal, your budget is still one fingerprint away, and still locked to everyone else.
Small feature, big trust
Fingerprint lock isn’t flashy. It won’t help you save an extra dollar. But it’s the kind of detail that tells you what an app really thinks of your data. A budgeting app is asking you to hand over the most sensitive map of your life. The least it can do is guard the front door as carefully as your bank does.
Open Buoy, go to Settings, then Security, and give your budget a lock only you can open.