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Alert24

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Phone on the table, eyes elsewhere

You are at a café and need the bathroom. Or you are in the library and the book you want is two floors up. Your phone stays on the table. Here is how to make sure it is still there when you get back.

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Overhead view through a café window of people working at laptops

The 30-second problem

A phone on a café table is easy to take. Someone walks past, picks it up and keeps walking. Nobody looks up, because a person holding a phone is the most normal thing in the world. By the time you are back from the counter, the phone and the person are gone.

Libraries and study halls have the same problem in slow motion. You leave your laptop and phone to mark your seat, you wander off, and the room is quiet enough that nobody notices a bag being opened.

The fix is not to carry your phone everywhere. The fix is to make picking it up loud. That is what the Don't Touch My Phone alarm does: it uses the motion sensor, and the moment the phone is lifted or moved, it beeps, then sounds a siren that only your PIN can stop.

Set up: arm the motion alarm, choose sensitivity

It takes about fifteen seconds. Do it before you stand up, not while you are walking away.

  1. 1

    Open Alert24 and choose Don't Touch My Phone

    It is the tab the app opens on. Tap the gear icon if you want to change sensitivity. A café table gets bumped, so a middle setting is a good start. A library table is still, so you can go higher.

  2. 2

    Turn on flash and vibration

    Two switches on the same screen. In a busy café the torch strobe is what makes people look. In a quiet library the siren alone is enough, but the flash costs nothing.

  3. 3

    Tap Activate and put the phone down

    You get a 10-second countdown to place the phone face down on the table. After that it is armed. Do not touch it again until you are back.

  4. 4

    When you return, pick it up and enter your PIN

    Lifting it starts the pre-alarm beep. Enter your PIN, pattern or knock code on the screen that appears and the alarm stops. If you unlock the phone during the beep, that also cancels it.

What the thief hears and sees

First, a warning beep for 5 seconds (you can make it shorter or longer in Settings). Most people put the phone straight back down at this point. If they keep hold of it, the siren starts at full media volume, with the torch flashing and the phone vibrating. Pressing the volume buttons cannot make it quiet; the siren never drops below 60% of maximum. The siren keeps going until your PIN is entered, for up to five minutes per trigger.

The screen shows a full-screen lock asking for your PIN, pattern or knock code. When the alarm starts, and again after wrong attempts, Alert24 takes a silent photo with the front camera and saves it with the time and location. You can look at it later in Intruders Pictures.

  • Beep, then siren at full volume, flash and vibration
  • Volume keys cannot silence it
  • Photo of the person holding the phone, with time and place
  • Stops only with your PIN, pattern, knock code or fingerprint

Charging at the wall? Add the charger alarm

Cafés with sockets are where phones get unplugged and walked off with. If your phone is charging while you step away, the charger removal alarm is the better fit. It arms only while the phone is plugged in, and the moment the cable is pulled it beeps, then sirens.

You can turn on automation so the charger alarm arms itself every time you plug in. If you do that, save home and work as trusted places so it stays quiet where you charge every day.

Etiquette: keep the pre-alarm beep

In a library, a false siren is embarrassing. The pre-alarm beep is your friend. It gives a well-meaning person who moves your phone (a librarian tidying, a friend passing it to you) a few seconds to put it back before anything loud happens. Keep it at 5 seconds, or a little longer in very quiet rooms.

The other way to avoid a false alarm is to pick a realistic sensitivity. If the table wobbles every time someone sits down, lower the slider a step or two. The alarm should fire when the phone is picked up, not when the table is nudged.

One more thing: the motion alarm disarms itself after it fires and you stop it. If you sit back down and then leave again, tap Activate again.

Café and library checklist

  • Arm Don't Touch My Phone before you stand up, and let the 10-second countdown finish
  • Phone face down so the front camera can see whoever picks it up
  • Flash and vibration on; sensitivity a step lower on wobbly tables
  • Charging at a socket? Use the charger alarm instead
  • Do not add the café or library as a trusted place
  • Screen lock on the phone itself, always

Related guides

Next coffee run, leave the phone armed

Alert24 is free on Google Play. Install it, set your PIN and arm the motion alarm before you get up.

Get it onGoogle Play