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Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

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Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#291
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not GP, but I'm okay installing that stuff on my personal phone because it's isolated via Android Work Profile.

How is that keeping Microsoft from accessing your GPS, sensor data, wifi, camera/microphone etc? Sure, they can't get at SMS or your other apps and your work won't have access to your entire device but it means MS can still access your location (using GPS and nearby bluetooth/wifi), record audio/video, read/control sensors (accelerometer, proximity, gravity, temperature, pressure, magnetic field etc), have full netwo…

There's different kinds of intune enrollment. Generally if it's not a company phone, they can only see your IMEI, last 4 of your phone number, OS version etc. They'll be able to isolate and control the work apps but nothing else because it's in a separate profile.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make it up to 128 characters. That's impressive that you are able to type a random string of nonsense so fast. My hack was to take a picture on my phone, have Apple's image recognition copy the string to my iCloud clipboard, and I'd paste it on my mac. It's too easy to defeat the purpose of these things if you're even slightly driven.

May I ask you why you did install it in the first place, if you then hack your way around it? Maybe the goal was to motivate you to find a hack anyway :)

Because I am not always driven to type 128 random characters or even use my phone camera, so it does successfully stop me from procrastinating much of the time.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for giving it a test drive! I'm thinking also about adding an option to have like 50% chance of a popup or a 75% chance, so it's less predictable. I first made it as every 2nd, 3d and so on, but maybe adding a randomness to it will be better? WDYT?

How about a pause mode? I use Android's Bedtime mode a lot, and it has a helpful feature that let's you quickly "Pause for 30 minutes" or "Turn off for now" from a notification [1]. I don't think the app needs notifications as such, but it could have quick access to a pause button. [1] https://img.gadgethacks.com/img/original/21/75/6372310031848...

I actually saw that exact feature on the app in a notification, with "pause for 30 minutes" and "turn off for now".

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#295
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my use case, randomness would make it even worse. For muscle memory, consistency is key. I don't know what the solution is - ideally, the app would not interrupt such quick actions like unlocking to take a photo or switch the song, but in practice, it can't exactly guess what I'm going to do before I do it. I was thinking about maybe "unlock and don't show the popup for the next 5 minutes", but then I already kno…

Here's maybe a solution: don't trigger the app if the phone is unlocked via a hardware shortcut. At least in my last 2 phones, I got them configured such that a double press on the power button wakes the camera app immediately (great for quick photos), while the rest of the system is still locked (need the unlock pin when trying to navigate away from the camera app) So in that situation the app could choose not to in…

+1 I rely on this hardware shortcut heavily when trying to catch photos of the kids in fleeting moments.

Edit: just tested this and the nudge does not appear to interrupt the camera quick access

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Who are you to tell others what they are allowed to think and talk about?

By dint of not finger-wagging at others for not automatically making their projects FOSS.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has always boggled my mind - If you don't trust me to pick a decent password and maintain my own machine, why in God's name would you trust me to write code or deploy/maintain company infrastructure?

They _don't_ trust you to do that stuff. Not unilaterally at least. In a healthy system you generally aren't able to change anything without sign off from multiple other people.

Also the argument they make is, they don't trust every single component of your machine, and want to mitigate the damage caused by an attacker or malware breaking in and impersonating you.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#298
post #199

Love it! Reminds me of an app my brother and I built 10 years ago (time flies!). It's no longer on Google Play because of the maintenance burden of keeping it there, but here's a page with some screenshots: https://apkpure.com/spinach-motivation-lock-screen/com.tengu... The idea was that if you're unlocking your screen, you should at least: (1) reinforce a mantra, or (2) force yourself to acknowledge you shouldn't be…

Wow. It's so cool to see such a project. I even remember in 2019 finding an app that was using a popup after unlock to learn words of a foreign language, unfortunately, it closed and I cannot recall the name. I would be happy to see the notes.

I think it could potentially be us too, though not sure. It was a very flexible product and we had a variety of use-cases. :)

We also had a lock screen app that you needed to play a tune on an instrument in order to unlock the screen. This too died because of Google maintenance burden (it had 500k downloads IIRC). Here's what I could find about that one: https://music-lock.en.softonic.com/android

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a pause mode? I use Android's Bedtime mode a lot, and it has a helpful feature that let's you quickly "Pause for 30 minutes" or "Turn off for now" from a notification [1]. I don't think the app needs notifications as such, but it could have quick access to a pause button. [1] https://img.gadgethacks.com/img/original/21/75/6372310031848...

I actually saw that exact feature on the app in a notification, with "pause for 30 minutes" and "turn off for now".

Ah perhaps the app is using bedtime mode for its functionality? Didn't get a chance to try it myself yet, but great that pausing is already implemented.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#300

Needs an option for “my employer turned on shitty Microsoft ten-billion-factor auth settings”. To login to my work Microsoft account requires a passcode and then three face scans.

First thing I thought of, too. Why do I need to unlock my phone? Because I need yet another MFA code for yet another mundane part of my job.
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