Family & friends

Half the time the person looking for the phone is not the person holding it. This section is about the shared cases: ringing a partner's phone from your own, letting a housemate or a parent ring yours, and helping someone who is not comfortable digging through settings. It covers what you have to agree on in advance, since neither iPhone nor Android lets a stranger make your phone do anything without permission. There are also answers about the family sharing features on both platforms and about where their limits are. RingIt is built for this arrangement: you decide who may ring you, and they can then make your phone sound even when it is on silent.

• How do I let someone else ring my phone?

  In RingIt you add the person by email and pick which of your devices they may ring. They get an invite and can ring that phone only once they accept. Giving someone permission does not let you ring theirs, so if you want that too, they have to add you the same way from their own app.