You know when your phone is somewhere in the house, but you don’t know where? That’s where “Find my phone” capability comes in handy. Just ask a nearby family member or friend to use the feature built into their phone’s OS to ping the lost device, and it makes a loud noise that helps you find it.
The problem: not everyone uses the same phone operating system. In my house, I have an iPhone and my wife has an Android. This means when I inevitably leave my phone in a hotel couch, she can’t really help me find it. Sure, she could call my phone number, but I usually have my ringer off and Do Not Disturb enabled. (I’m annoying like that.) She obviously can’t use Apple’s Find My iPhone, which doesn’t run on her Android device. And while both Apple and Google offer tools to see the location of paired devices from a computer, the computer that’s nearby may not be set up with the proper permissions.
Am I doomed to keep track of where my phone is, like a functional adult? No, thanks to a simple app called RingIt by Belgian developer Gaëtan Van Den Berge. This application, which is free for both Android and iOS, exists to make it easier for Android users to help iPhone users find their phone, and vice-versa. Just open the app, hit a button, and the other person’s phone will ring—loudly—helping them to find their phone.
“The idea for RingIt actually came to me on vacation with my girlfriend,” Van Den Berge tells me. “I kept misplacing my phone, often while it was on silent, and I’d repeatedly ask her, ‘Do you know where my phone is?’ I remember thinking how nice it would be if she could just make my phone ring loudly from her own device, even if mine was muted.”
And so he made an application that does exactly this, and nothing else. The application doesn’t collect location or any user data—just email addresses that are used for verification.
Setting up the application is easy: just install the app on your phone. You’ll need to verify your email address, which is done by typing in a code sent to your inbox. After that you’ll have to grant a few permissions—basically, the app needs to be able to send notifications even when settings like Do Not Disturb are turned on. Make sure you provide this permission: the application won’t work without it.
Now the people you want to help you to do the same thing—setting up the app and creating an account. Finally, you can give people permission to ring your phone by tapping the plus icon next to the words “Can ring you”—type their email address and you’re good to go.
Note that this isn’t reciprocal—that is, you can’t ring your friend’s phone just because you gave them permission to ring yours. For that they will have to intentionally add you.
I recommend testing the feature out. Put your phone under a cushion or something and have your friend attempt to ring it using the app. The phone will ring—loudly!—making it easy to find. This works even if your phone is silenced or set to Do Not Disturb.
Now, obviously, you should only give this power to people you trust not to abuse it.
The app itself is pretty simple, but it works well and is completely free. Van Den Berge told me it’s going to stay that way for the core functionality, but a paid plan will come eventually.
“However, we do have ongoing costs, so we’re introducing a paid tier, but only for extras,” he told me. This will mean things like home screen widgets and integrations with voice assistants. Pinging phones from the app will always be free. He said the price for the premium extras will be around $10 per year.
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