App Review: Hotel My Phone
It’s happened to all of us at least once, and probably much more frequently than that –your phone is suddenly on its last shred of battery, or you forgot the darn thing at home. In a world where maintaining a constant connection to the outside world in your pocket is basically essential, situations like this can leave you in the lurch.
If you need to make a call, you can always borrow a friend’s phone… but when’s the last time you actually knew anyone’s number by heart? And if you’re waiting for an important call or text, you’re totally out of luck. Well the good folks at pplconnect have heard your cries and felt your pain and come up with Hotel My Phone.
What is Hotel My Phone?
Hotel My Phone is an app for iOS and Android that allows your to access your phone even when you don’t have it with you. It has been described as a sort of Airbnb for mobile devices. If you find yourself without your phone for whatever reason –dead battery, left at home, lost –you can use a friend’s phone to access a virtual copy of your absent phone. From there, you can see your contacts, send and receive messages, and even make phone calls from your number. Clever, right?
How Does it Work?
It’s really simple actually. You just download the Hotel My Phone app and create an account. Then, invite five of your closest friends (…or the five people you spend the most time with. Let’s be real, no way you spend most of your time with your bff’s, this ain’t the show Friends, this is the real world. Huge adjoining apartments with your closest buds, and a local coffee shop you all frequent together on the daily, are the stuff of your 7th grade dreams. Le sigh).
So, invite your four sort-of-acquaintances-at-work and your mom to download the app. Once they do, they’ll be added to your network. Now any time you are without your phone you can log into one of their devices and use the app to access your phone. The more friends who join, the wider your network will become. You can also access your information from anyone’s phone who has the app even if they’re not in your network, but it’s not free if they aren’t, so keep that in mind.
Once you’ve accessed your phone from the Hotel My Phone app on your friend’s device, you’ll be able to see your contacts, calls, and messages. You can even call people and it will show up on their phones as your number, no need to have to explain why you’re calling from a different number, or have them not pick up at all because they don’t recognize the caller. You can also send in-app messages (if they have the app) from your number as well, and SMS messages (though these will come from a generic Hotel My Phone number).
[Tweet “If you just want to alert others that your phone is out of commission, you can do that, too. Read more about Hotel My Phone -“]
If you just want to alert others that your phone is out of commission, you can do that, too.
You can choose from a few different auto-messages (“my battery is about to die, reach me on Hotel My Phone,” “if no answer, reach me here, I probably lost my phone again!,” etc.) or create your own message. One click and the message will automatically post to your Facebook or Twitter.
iOS vs Android
Surprise surprise, Hotel My Phone works slightly differently on different phones. As it was originally built for Android, that app has a few more features than its iOS brother. However, Hotel My Phone has been expanding the iOS features with each new version of their product, so hopefully, soon they’ll be the same. Here’s the current breakdown of what you can do with each:
Android
- Send and receive texts with your phone number
- Use free in-app message on Hotel My Phone
- Call with your phone number
- Receive real-time call logs
- Access your contacts
- Send SMS from a generic number, when your phone is dead
iOS
- Use free in-app messages on Hotel My Phone
- Call with your phone number
- Access your contacts
- Send SMS from a generic number, when your phone is dead
What Exactly Do I Get?
Some of the services of Hotel My Phone are free, and some will cost you a bit of change –like a pay phone, how retro of them. Here’s the exact breakdown of what’s included and what’s not –don’t want any surprise charges!
Free
- Login on a friend’s phone in your network an unlimited number of times for free
- Send and receive unlimited in-app messages
- Send SMS from a friend’s phone (if your absent phone is still on)
- Bonus: you get a $1 credit upon signing up for the app
Un-free
- Login’s on phones that are not in your network of friends ($1.00 each time)
- Sending SMS from a generic number when your absent phone is off ($0.10 a message)
- Calling from a friend’s phone with your number (average of $0.03 a minute, though the cost can vary by country)
Some folks have expressed worry about the safety of this app as it does seem like users might be opening themselves up to more security threats. While it’s true that any app, software, or product that allows you to access your information remotely does come with a cost, Hotel My Phone has worked hard to make the app as safe to use as possible.
When a friend uses your phone, all of your personal information becomes hidden. Likewise, once you log out of a friend’s phone, all of your information is erased, nothing remains on the host phone. And if you forget to log out, the phone will automatically do so for you after 4 hours.
Are you someone who is always misplacing your phone, or forgetting to charge it? Try Hotel My Phone with your friends and let us know how it works for you! We’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below!
