PVS

Hello early adopters!

Many months ago one of our group lost his phone during a business road show. The phone was found--it was just misplaced--but it became apparent that often the most important need during the hours the phone is not in hand, is knowing who is calling and texting you. We were less concerned about losing sensitive data (it was very unlikley the phone was stolen), and more about staying in touch.

Talking about it later, we realized none of the phone locator apps address this need. There is a lot of emphasis on wiping the phone data, and taking "Stop, thief!" pictures etc but most phones that go missing are just misplaced, not stolen. Much blame must fall on the sofa cushions!

So we developed PhoneLeash (free, Android Market) and we are trying to have the right balance of features:

GPS locating
SMS/missed call forwarding to email or phone
Reply to SMS
Low battery alert
Remote ring
Privacy (no website tracking your phone)
Battery life -- after all you won't be using these features much of the time, so why have features that constantly drain your battery.

Unique feature - With PhoneLeash you can (remotely) reply to an SMS, and it goes out from your phone - the other side simply cannot tell the difference. While new and unique, we want to make sure we keep it simple to use. Speaking of simplicity, all of PhoneLeash fits in 1-2 spartan screens.

We've tested with Go SMS, Handcent to make sure PhoneLeash works with their default settings. PhoneLeash can also forward to HeyWire SMS numbers as well (seems to be in a small group of apps that can do this, thanks to another Android Forums user).

We found out that some tablets (such as Galaxy 8.9) do SMS but no telephony, so those are supported now as well.

If some of you could install the app (www.tinyurl.com/phoneleashfree ) and let us know how we are doing, you'll be doing us a great service. And don't be shy in asking for more!

Thanks!

PVS, GearAndroid
www.gearandroid.com

Last edited by PVS; December 21st, 2011 at 02:18 PM.

Mr. Lucky

Email sent re PhoneLeash SMS forwarding, and left positive feedback on Market.

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Mr. Lucky

Rather than double-post, here's a link to the emailed feedback I left and received:
SMS Auto-forwarding

Note that I am not using the "locate missing phone" feature at this time. My comments only pertain to the SMS forwarding functionality.

PVS

New version 1.5 of PhoneLeash posted to the Android Market. See here for details on the new features.

Last edited by PVS; December 28th, 2011 at 08:15 PM.

PVS

See announcement here

Download here or use QR code

Sam Voss

a few quick things:

• you should include a user guide or explain better what is going on
• I started and when I got a text, it didnt go to my email account that it was set up for, possibly a setup issue, see point 1
• check out singleTop activity, try not to have the same activity over and over and over and ... otherwise you need to click back multiple times and keep killing the same activity, which could only be just one
• Just clicking the "rate" button gets rid of the block, you can back out of the market and it think it has been rated

Just a few idea's from a fellow Android Developer

EDIT: I did get the emails, gmail puts them all in spam, just an FYI

Last edited by Sam Voss; January 25th, 2012 at 11:58 PM.

PVS

Thanks for the inputs. You're right, PhoneLeash could do with more help content. The work of a dev is never over

Did you see the videos at www.gearandroid.com, especially this one on setup and install ?

You're right, the app doesn't really enforce the rating request, and thats OK. Ratings and reviews are important but I'd rather make it just a strong suggestion, than a potential irritant. In fact, just asking for support will unlock the field as well.

Thanks for the singleTop tip ... will look into it

I have no idea at the moment how to deal with the spam classification, maybe just make it a prominent troubleshooting step.

PVS