As previously mentioned, my wife is trying to migrate to her work cell phone. We've settled on the fact that she can't get MMS or group iPhone SMS via Google Voice, so that's what we'll do with her current personal number.

What she's finding harder to live with, however, are the security protocols on her work phone. It's the government, so naturally they're a little paranoid, but every time she unlocks her phone she is required to enter an eight character password with at least one special character. On a computer this would be a big deal, but my wife and I might unlock a phone 30 to 60 times in a day! Entering such a long password every time is not appealing to her.

Do we have ANY recourse? She's called her IT person at work, and he was adamant that he couldn't do anything for her. However, he strongly hinted that someplace called "Google" might have the information she requires. While this may be true, neither of us have had much luck so far. It appears that there's a profile that controls this, but I'm not sure what - if anything - we can do about that...

Any help?

I have an app on my Android phone that keeps it "unlocked" after I first enter the passcode.

Maybe something similar exists for iPhones ?

Settings - General - Auto Lock and Passcode Lock are where you need to head. However, these settings can all be restricted by the security policy of the profile on the phone, and may not offer much wiggle room. Many times, IT will use a feature that blocks access to VPN or mail if that security policy is not in place.

For Mark, the above is where you can tell a stock iPhone to never relock, no app needed.

Solutions beyond this will require jailbreaking the device, and using apps that override these security settings. I'd not recommend this path, since jailbreaks can be detected, and could lead to some serious issues for your wife if discovered. I personally wouldn't take the risk, though I also wouldn't use a work provided phone for anything personal.

Not my area of expertise, but perhaps another 'policy' can be overlaid on the phone?

Something along the lines of unlockit.co.nz

More or less the same on Android, thanks. Except when a security policy *requires* a lock. That's where the app comes in handy.

All the policies are merged together and the strongest security settings from the merge are applied.