[APP][2.2+] PhoneLeash - Lose phone? Use phone! Then find phone (hopefully)!

[PVS]

Hello AF Community:

Here's a new app on the Android Market for the misplaced/lost phone: PhoneLeash (www.tinyurl.com/phoneleashfree)

Lets cut to the chase, what does it do: if you've misplaced your phone, you can use SMS commands to
- locate it using GPS/WiFi location, get a nice Google Maps link, and
- make it ring LOUD (even if its on vibrate).

But while your phone is not with you, you get via email or SMS:

- missed call notifications
- incoming SMS
- you can reply to SMS, and the reply goes out of your phone as if you typed it in yourself (if you are using this over email, your phone needs to have an email-to-SMS address, which PhoneLeash helpfully tries to autodetect for US and Canadian carriers)
- battery low message

Tested with Go SMS and Handcent.
Works with HeyWire SMS numbers
Would love to make it work with WhatsApp - if only there was an API
Works with some tablets (Tab 8.9?) that do SMS but are not phones

Very very simple to setup - 1 screen, 1 password, 1-2 email or phone numbers.

Here's a long story (I'm told!) on the beta tester's site : http://androidforums.com/alpha-beta-testing/468590-beta-phoneleash-app-misplaced-phone.html

Do try it out, and let us know how you like it!

SUPPORT/SUGGESTIONS/QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK >> support at gearandroid dot com

 

[PVS]

PhoneLeash version 1.5 is now on the Android Market.

This release has some big updates, features we are incredibly proud of:

- Intuitive SMS reply - When forwarding from PhoneLeash to another phone via SMS (or Google Voice, HeyWire etc), replying is super easy. Just prefix "tolastsender" before the message and the reply goes to whoever sent you the last SMS. If you think you'll be exchanging SMS' for a while, the "allrepliesto xxxxxxxxxx" command, will send treat all subsequent messages as replies and send them to the xxxxxxxxxx number. Here is a screencap showing a conversation between a HeyWire web client texting to a remote phone. The phone running PhoneLeash is the go-between, and the remote phone thinks the conversation is with this phone, not some web-based app.

You can also simply prefix a phone number like this "@2223334444 how are you this day?" and the message will go to 2223334444.

Additionally you get notifications on phone bootup and shutdown. There isn't a lot of time between the system sending the shutdown message and actually turning off, so occassionally the shutdown message may not make it out, but works most of the time.

First ever GASP implementation: GASP ("GPS At Shutdown Point") sends out your phone's GPS location just as the phone begins to shutdown! Perfect for lost phones about to lose battery charge completely.

We hope you like these features, your feedback is appreciated support AT gearandroid DOT SEE OH EM

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Wow! I'll try this out over the next day or two as time allows, but a question about the 'tolastsender' and 'allrepliesto' commands. Are they global settings, or unique to each thread? For example, let's say I have two SMS threads going with two separate people (1234567 and 4567890), and that both threads were initiated by an incoming PhoneLeash forward. If I set allrepliesto 1234567 in the 1234567 thread, is it only active in that thread, or will my my replies in the other thread go there too? Either way it's not a problem, but the answer would affect when I would use 'tolastsender' vs 'allrepliesto' in replies. I hope that makes sense.

 

[PVS]

Wow! I'll try this out over the next day or two as time allows, but a question about the 'tolastsender' and 'allrepliesto' commands. Are they global settings, or unique to each thread? For example, let's say I have two SMS threads going with two separate people (1234567 and 4567890), and that both threads were initiated by an incoming PhoneLeash forward. If I set allrepliesto 1234567 in the 1234567 thread, is it only active in that thread, or will my my replies in the other thread go there too? Either way it's not a problem, but the answer would affect when I would use 'tolastsender' vs 'allrepliesto' in replies. I hope that makes sense.

They're global settings. When you use "allrepliesto <destination>" _everything_ goes to the destination, including any app commands (I tend to make this mistake a lot, and wonder why the command didn't work). The exceptions are when you explicitly specify a different destination by using an actual number, or by using the "tolastsender" (it'll send to last sender, which could be different from your allrepliesto destination).

"tolastsender" is global too but obviously affects only one message, and sends it to the ... last sender. I am intrigued about a combination command - "allrepliesto tolastsender" But thats poor grammar!

Here's how the notifications look, and yes they come up on boot, and when they're change by remote commands.

PVS

 

[PVS]

Just used PhoneLeash to send my my first tweet from my phone. Of course without even having to touch my phone! Just send "40404 I too am having coffee at Starbucks" from your Google Voice, or HeyWire or Pinger to your PhoneLeash-ed phone (can't do this from email just yet). Maybe time for @phoneleash

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I finally got some time to try this out. I really like what you've done with v1.5! Bear in mind that my testing was done exclusively with SMS. I did not even enter email info.

I agree that the notification boot issue is fixed, and that reply forwarding is much improved and intuitive... and the locate <email> <password> function is slick! I entered one of the email addresses for my pc (I have several), and watched as the message arrived on the PhoneLeash phone. It vibrated, then turned on GPS, aquired the satellite, sent the email, then turned GPS back to its previous "off" state. I opened the email, and it took me right to the Google street view of my house.

I realize now that my earlier question about allrepliesto being global or thread specific was moot. When you are in Heywire or Google Voice receiving forwarded messages, the concept of threaded text conversations no longer exists. Since everything is coming from the same forwarded number, no matter how many conversations you have going, they will all be dumped into the same client thread. In that circustance, allrepliesto should be used very carefully.

Even though I didn't see it documented anywhere, I was glad to see that the commands are case insensitive. I had a couple of surprises though.
1. I know you mentioned about the bootup and shutdown messages, but I didn't expect to recieve them when only SMS was configured. I think it should be user configuarable or just default "off" when email is not configured.
2. I got a BIG surprise when I sent help <email> <password>! It replied by text, not email, and resulted in 12 incoming forwarded messages! Even more puzzling was the fact that it went to the Heywire phone, not the phone that sent the help command! I think this needs to either be fixed or clarified in the documentation.

If you can iron out these two points, and add the auto-delete feature on the forwarded number's messaging app (ala SMS Forwarding), I'd pay for this app!

 

[PVS]

Thanks again Mr Lucky, spot on, as always! The next release will ensure that no single response to any command exceeds 1 SMS, including the currently dreaded help command! Then, we'll take your money

Also thinking of consolidating multiple incoming SMS from the same sender. If someone sends 3-4 short SMS in (say) < 3 minutes, it would consume less of your outgoing SMS quota if PhoneLeash combined them into fewer SMS before forwarding it on.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Thanks, but I would vote against consolidating messages. There's already latency in the network. Waiting to see if another short message is incoming will just add more.

The Help text is not overly wordy. I think you will lose meaning if you cut it down to fit within one SMS. I do feel that it should honor the <alt email> instruction though. I wound up cutting&pasting the 12 Help messages into a Word file that I keep on the device for reference.

 

[jgreen3401]

Does anyone know of any other programs that work the same way as phoneleash that will be compatible with the Infuse 4g on ATT? I want phoneleash but it says it's not compatible with my phone and I can't download it.

Any ideas?

FYI-I'm trying to forward messages from a old ATT number to a new Tmobile number that I have put in my infuse. There is no actual phone sitting and taking incoming calls/messages on att since I remove that ATT sim and put the tmobile sim in it so this application sounds perfect.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

You are either doing something wrong or have some sort of download issue. It works perfectly on my AT&T Infuse 4g. In any event, you can't do what you are attempting. This app, and all other forwarding apps of which I am aware, operate on the device... not at the carrier level. IOW, the app must be installed on the active device you are forwarding FROM.

If you want full time forwarding from a number that you are no longer using (but that is still active), you have to do it at the carrier level. Try here (scroll down to Call Forwarding).

 

[PVS]

Does anyone know of any other programs that work the same way as phoneleash that will be compatible with the Infuse 4g on ATT? I want phoneleash but it says it's not compatible with my phone and I can't download it.

Any ideas?

FYI-I'm trying to forward messages from a old ATT number to a new Tmobile number that I have put in my infuse. There is no actual phone sitting and taking incoming calls/messages on att since I remove that ATT sim and put the tmobile sim in it so this application sounds perfect.

Like Mr Lucky said, PhoneLeash resides on the device you want to forward SMS _from_ (e.g. forwarding from your Infuse/T-Mobile to another email addr/SMS number).

And I show multiple Infuse 4Gs running PhoneLeash (via the developer console), so device compatibility should be fine.

Do you see the "you have no compatible devices" message on the market? My (somewhat vague) guess is that perhaps the Market thinks you want to download to your old AT&T phone, which doesn't ... exist ... anymore? Feel free to write me at support AT gearandroid DOT com , or post here.

PVS

 

[24601]

Is there a way to turn off the automatic signature, "-Try PhoneLeash!-" that is appended to every reply sms?

 

[PVS]

Is there a way to turn off the automatic signature, "-Try PhoneLeash!-" that is appended to every reply sms?

The next version will give you the ability to change or remove the signature line. We are almost done with the next version (mega features coming people ), hang in there for another 2-3 more days.

PVS

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Lest you think PVS forgot about us, he didn't. He's out of the country on vacation, and I am beta testing the next version, which looks very good.

 

[PVS]

Is there a way to turn off the automatic signature, "-Try PhoneLeash!-" that is appended to every reply sms?

Now there is ... see the new version here