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And why can't Apple have this easy feature?

C

Clint1583

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 4, 2011
155
9
I tend to be a magnet at finding lost Smart Phones, usually iPhones. Recently on vacation I found 2, one in the international terminal at Reagan International and the other on a train in Italy. I was luckily able to find both owners and saved them a lot of headache and a vacation. Prior to that I can't count how many phones I've gotten back to owners.

So yesterday for the first time I find this brand new Samsung Galaxy model in a mall, luckily I'm like the one in a million honest person to find it. Not knowing how I'm going to find the owner, plus never having used a Galaxy before, I hit the power button on the phone and a small marquee scrolls across the screen with the persons name and email address.

I quickly send an email to the person from my iPhone and like magic I get a call from the person who lost her phone! Why in the world can't Apple offer this simple screen marquee in order to help people with lost phones? I've searched my iPhone for such a feature (including an app) and can't find anything like it. I realize that iPhones have a "Find my phone" feature but that's only so good.
 
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Another reason I jailbreak.

If Found Lite.

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It may not be as apparent to a non apple user who finds the phone but you can ask Siri who's phone it is. She will give the contact card of the owner.

Edit: also under the medical ID (if set up) it has the contact info of your emergency contact. Mine shows my wife's phone number. Definitely not as user friendly as the scrolling information noted above.
 
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BradWould said:
It may not be as apparent to a non apple user who finds the phone but you can ask Siri who's phone it is. She will give the contact card of the owner.

Edit: also under the medical ID (if set up) it has the contact info of your emergency contact. Mine shows my wife's phone number. Definitely not as user friendly as the scrolling information noted above.
Click to expand...
Provided the owner has Siri enabled and not Voice Control.
 
Clint1583 said:
I tend to be a magnet at finding lost Smart Phones, usually iPhones. Recently on vacation I found 2, one in the international terminal at Reagan International and the other on a train in Italy. I was luckily able to find both owners and saved them a lot of headache and a vacation. Prior to that I can't count how many phones I've gotten back to owners.

So yesterday for the first time I find this brand new Samsung Galaxy model in a mall, luckily I'm like the one in a million honest person to find it. Not knowing how I'm going to find the owner, plus never having used a Galaxy before, I hit the power button on the phone and a small marquee scrolls across the screen with the persons name and email address.

I quickly send an email to the person from my iPhone and like magic I get a call from the person who lost her phone! Why in the world can't Apple offer this simple screen marquee in order to help people with lost phones? I've searched my iPhone for such a feature (including an app) and can't find anything like it. I realize that iPhones have a "Find my phone" feature but that's only so good.
Click to expand...

I always wondered why there wasn't something more proactive than Find My iPhone. Don't get me wrong, FMiP has saved me a couple of times but having the info already there rather than waiting until I realized I didn't have my phone and/or could get to a computer would have been great. I just add text to the lock screen wallpaper now though. It doesn't take long to do. But I agree there could be better implementation. I'd love for it to have ICE info available also.
 
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That's a feature across all Android phones. Its sort of buried deep in the settings but its nice to have.

Maybe we need to post this somewhere so Apple can add this down the line. I'll gladly sign a petition.
 
Not the same but if the phone is lost and you enable "find my iphone", you can have a custom message scroll along with a number to call. But yes, this is a nice feature to have.
 
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Vicrooloo said:
That's a feature across all Android phones. Its sort of buried deep in the settings but its nice to have.

Maybe we need to post this somewhere so Apple can add this down the line. I'll gladly sign a petition.
Click to expand...

No need to wait on someone else to get things started, just send feedback with a feature request.
 
C DM said:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrog...n-ios-8-that-could-save-your-life-yes-really/
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I totally forgot this was available to set in the Health app. Thanks for posting. Apple should really make more of an effort to pub this. I also think it would be better served if it showed up when you swipe left rather than being somewhat buried. In an emergency, there's no guarantee that whoever finds my unconscious body is an iPhone expert who knows all the little hidden things. A grim thought but well, that's what ICE is for.
 
My iPhone has "If found, please call xxx-xxx-xxxx" on the home screen and its not jailbroken. I just used the free LockInfo app that embeds your message in an image, and then you just make that your lock screen image. Pretty simple.
 
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Peter K. said:
I installed this and it didn't work. Any suggestions?
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Futz with the sliders. That's the one irritating thing about this tweak. You think it should be right and it's not, it's showing off the screen.

Also, did you install the Lite version or the full version?

My understanding is that the full version does not work.

2015-12-14 20.01.27.png 2015-12-14 20.01.40.png
 
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