Yondr phone pouch is a great invention. The Yondr is a lockable phone pouch recently hot in Europe and the US, with Jack White and Childish Gambino welcoming fans to use it. Lock it when you enter the show and unlock it to get your phone back after the show. You may also have heard about or seen these pouches have been used at school. They help kids focus in a mobile-free zone. If you are curious about this new trend, then you are in the right spot. Keep reading to learn how they work, what are the pros and cons, and whether is there a better alternative.
What is a Yondr pouch, and how does it work?
Yondr Phone Pouch is a lockable bag that locks up mobile phones and blocks their use in a certain area.
Yondr phone pouch was started as a small project. This item was designed to be used in concerts and shows to keep the focus of viewers 100%. The purpose of these hands-free spaces is to encourage interaction with other participants and the environment. So, everyone who arrived at the event must put their phone in a Yondr pouch at the entry point. As the pouch is opaque and made of fabric, users can’t see the screen or access the touchpad. However, it doesn’t have a signal blocker. Finally, when they leave, they can unlock the phone at any exit point and return the pouch there.
It is becoming famous because it completely blocks the use of a phone, making it useful in many places:
- At schools to enforce mobile phone bans.
- At events where the artists want people to focus on them.
- Parents can set everyday timings for phone locking to have family time.
- Events/weddings where couples don’t want constant photoshoots from people.
- At theatres to keep mobiles silent and discourage people from pirating movies.
- At the workplace, to restrict employees from wasting time and disturbance during meetings.
How to unlock a Yondr pouch?
Let us first understand how to work, and then you can learn to unlock the pouch.
We have all gone to malls to buy clothes, and if you have noticed, there is a black tag attached to every shirt or pants. This tag acts as a theft-proof accessory. If you exit the shop door without taking the tag off, the alarm will go off. When you purchase a product, the sellers take it off by striking it at a magnetic plate.
Similarly, the same mechanical trick is applied to Yondr phone pouches, which, when locked, can only be opened with magnetic plates. So, keeping this in mind, staff lock the mobiles in Yondr pouches at the gate and set some unlocking stands at resting stands if someone wants to use it urgently.
To unlock the Yondr Pouch to get your phone out, you can follow the below steps:
- Get to an unlocking base.
- Place the round side of the lock against the magnet of the base.
- At the same time, you have to press the button opposite the round side.
- As soon as the button pops out, the phone unlocks, and the pouch opens, simply get your phone back.
How much does a Yondr pouch cost?
The official price of the Yondr pouch is not listed on their website because they don’t sell to individual customers. They only offer cases in bulk to schools, events, hospitals, malls, etc.
According to some sources, the average price of the whole set, i.e., the pouch and the unlocking magnetic base, is around $25 to $30. However, on different websites like eBay, only pouches are sold for around $20 to $30. The good thing is that people can reuse the sealed fabric bag for a long time.
Should schools lock up kid’s phones?
Well, it’s been a debate for over a decade now. Some people think that kids need to carry a cell phone in school so they can contact parents or authorities in case of emergencies.
Moreover, whether we want it or not, mobiles have become an essential part of everyday life. Some people are so addicted and can’t even leave their phones for hours. So, mobile phones support the claim that schools must integrate mobile phones into the current teaching system and make a healthy screen time habit at an early age.
In contrast, some people claim that students keep on using mobiles in school, don’t focus on their studies, and are becoming addicted. In addition, it’s a fact that mobile-addictive kids don’t focus on real life, so their cognitive and social skills degrade over time. Worse, mobiles are also the number one cause of cyberbullying and blackmailing.
So, by keeping both groups in mind, some schools allow the use of mobile phones, while in most countries, it is legal and considered correct to take away a child’s phone if he is using it during study hours.
There are different ways a school can restrict the use of mobile which is:
- By seizing mobiles at the entry/classroom
- By using signal blockers
- By using Yondr pouches
Benefits and challenges of using the Yondr phone pouch
It’s a way to isolate the phone from the owner and forcing it into a phone-free state. Like everything in this world, Yondr pouches have also their pros and cons, which you must consider before investing in this project.
- Pros of Yondr Pouch
+ Yondr pouches also enhance the privacy of others as users can’t access their cameras, so they can record a video and bully others.
+ Having less mobile use also means boredom, so kids will try to reach other kids to play or talk, which will increase their socialising skills.
+ Equipped with Yondr pouches means that kids can’t use phones freely in classes or other scenarios, which makes them focus on their studies.
+ Yondr pouches are better than phone collection stands, where the chances of phone displacing or loss are high. But with Yondr pouches, everyone can keep their phone in their hands/bags all the time.
- Cons of Yondr Pouch
– The biggest demerit of Yondr pouches is they completely pack the phone in a cover, and owners can’t use in emergencies, even if someone’s life is at stake.
– Yondr pouches are costly, like $20 ~ $30 per piece. It’s not a small investment. Besides, the Yondr company doesn’t sell single items to individuals. They only mass-produce products for projects like schools, events, hospitals, etc.
– There is always a chance that users will not return them at events, dirty or tore them which is a huge loss as they are too costly.
– As everybody has to first pack their phone at entry points they unlock them when leaving, which is very time-wasting and makes a long waiting line.
– The Yondr pouch mechanism can easily be unlocked using a strong magnet so students can unlock them at school and keep using their mobile.
A better way to regulate phone usage among students
Unable to be used in an emergency, anybody can open it with a strong magnet, costly price, single piece unavailability, and with so many other faults, the Yondr pouch is not the best way to keep the use of a mobile in check.
Well, there is a way that you can limit kids’ phone use while still staying connected with them, and that way is through parental control apps. One such famous app is FlashGet Kids, which offers many features to keep your kid safe, like accurate movement tracking, geofencing, live monitoring, snapshots, etc. Check below to know why you should try FlashGet Kids.
- Screen time limit: This feature allows you to set a restriction limit on your kids’ phones, which prohibits the use of apps and gadgets at specific period, like school hours, sleeping time, study hours, etc. Moreover, you can set a time usage limit on individual apps to save them from addiction.
- App blocking: The FlashGet Kids app allows you to remotely block certain apps on your kid’s phone. Plus, it also updates notifications your kids got to your phone. This feature creates a safe environment for kids to explore technology, even during school hours.
- Location tracking: Yondr pouches are simple accessories that need to be lock and unlock, while FlashGet Kids is a digital app that tracks your child and updates his/her information on your phone every few seconds.
- Temper proof: Yondr pouches can easily be opened with a string magnet, so their safety isn’t that great. On the other hand, FlashGet Kids is a digital app with multiple encryption codes that are almost impossible for a kid to break.
Final thoughts
Yondr phone pouches are more screen protectors than mobile prohibition accessories. They are impractical as everybody gets an emergency call, especially when you are an adult attending an event, and these pouches aren’t even transparent, so you can at least see who is calling. The same problem applies to kids in school, employees in the workplace, and so on.
In addition, schools must teach kids the healthy use of mobile phones which can’t be done by locking the phone in a jail pouch. So, to cover all these problems, you can use the FlashGet Kids app and limit the use of functions from kid to kid, and from time to time, creating a safe environment.
