The 14 Steps it takes to open my office door with a new phone • Hacker News Board

Re: The 14 Steps it takes to open my office door with a new phone

#11

Post by iamnothere » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 10:40 PM UTC

nemomarx wrote: post #5

winterbloom wrote: post #3

the vast majority of things are on you, if you had a working phone, it would just be install an app, login, and it works it is better than having to carry keys around

For an office door, why not a key card or lanyard badge or whatever? A code? I feel like you could use something easier than an app too.

Key cards/badges don’t have GPS in them and can’t keep tabs on you outside the office.

Re: The 14 Steps it takes to open my office door with a new phone

#12

Post by fuzzfactor » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC

It probably takes more than 12 steps to break habitual phone use all the time too :\

Re: The 14 Steps it takes to open my office door with a new phone

#13

Post by apothegm » Sat, Aug 01, 2026, 11:15 PM UTC

winterbloom wrote: post #3

the vast majority of things are on you, if you had a working phone, it would just be install an app, login, and it works it is better than having to carry keys around

Yeah, that article was silly. Yes, setting up a new phone is a giant annoying exercise in yak shaving, but that’s to be expected when transferring to any device.

That said, I’ve had to unlock a door with a dedicated phone app, and it’s always way too many taps even if the app hasn’t randomly logged you out because your session is a month old or because your phone restarted to store an update. (Even more if you prefer to keep Bluetooth off -which among other things saves on battery.)