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Help Center › Apps, community & FAQ › Signing in to the phone app and managing signed-in phones
Signing in to the phone app and managing signed-in phones
How phone sign-in works, how long it lasts, how to sign out a lost phone, and what the notification switches do.
Each person signs in to the phone app with the same email (or username) and password they use on your website. The phone then gets its own key, so the password is not kept on the phone.
Before you start
- Your website must use https. If it does not, the app says: “Phone sign-in needs a secure (https) website.”
- The person needs a login on your site and, for crew, to be on your team list. A person who is not on a team gets a message explaining why.
Steps: sign in
- Open the app.
- Enter your email (or username) and password.
- Tap sign in.
The website returns a key once. It is stored in the iPhone Keychain or the Android Keystore. Only a scrambled (hashed) copy is kept on the website.
How long it lasts
- The key expires after 90 days without use. Each time you use the app, the 90 days start again (the website records “last seen” at most every 10 minutes).
- Removing someone from your team ends their access at their next request.
- If the key is no longer valid, the app shows: “Your sign-in on this device has ended. Please sign in again.”
Steps: sign out a phone you no longer have
- Open the app and go to Settings (the menu path to it is not verified in code; look under More).
- Find the list of signed-in phones.
- Tap Sign out next to the phone’s name and confirm.
Owners, and anyone with the team-management permission, also see their team’s phones in this list and can sign them out. The owner’s own device cannot be signed out by someone else. The signed-out phone must enter the password again; anything it has not sent yet stays on it until then.
Notification switches
Settings has four switches per phone:
| Switch | When it fires |
|---|---|
| Schedule changes | A job is added, moved or cancelled for you |
| Job updates | A job you are on is sent back, approved or needs follow-up |
| Time and hours worked | You may have forgotten to clock out, or your week was approved or sent back |
| Office alerts | Managers: issues from the field, blocked jobs, work waiting for approval |
The app asks the phone for permission to send notifications only when the person turns them on. If notifications are blocked in the phone’s settings, the app shows a banner with a button to open them. Tapping a notification opens the job or timesheet.
Tips
- Signing out warns you if there is unsent work, and offers “Sign out and delete unsent work”.
- Sign out a lost phone before anything else, then change the website password.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| “Enter your email (or username) and password.” | One box was empty. |
| “That email and password don’t match an account here.” | Wrong details. Use “Forgot password” on the website. |
| “Too many tries. Wait 15 minutes and try again.” | More than 10 failed tries from one internet address in 15 minutes. |
| “Phone sign-in needs a secure (https) website.” | The site address starts with http. Ask your web host to enable https. |