Any one using moto skip thing

dbam987

Active member
Mar 10, 2011
31
0
0
Is anyone using the motto skip gizmo? Any issues with it? I've been thinking of getting it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
 
Basically how many times it doesn't catch that the phone was tapped against it for unlocking it and how reliable the stickers are. I've read one review about it stating that the 3 RFID stickers you get require the phone to be placed in a certain way against them, and several micro-adjustments maybe required to trigger the RFID tags.
 
I guess where my expectations weren't met is that - to me - "tap" implies only momentary contact. My experience is that I hold the back of my phone against Skip for about a second until the phone buzzes and it's unlocked. For instance, I would not be able to run by an NFC-enabled subway turnstile and tap my phone on the the way by. The unlock is more of a tap-and-hold operation.

I haven't tried the stickers yet but I assume they're the same since the Skip is the same tech stuck on a magnet.
 
I used my skip dots on my desk at home and work for a while when I first got the phone. They worked fine. I could just set the phone on the skip dot and it would stay unlocked. I've since installed the "Delayed Lock" app with the wifi add-on and now my phone just stays unlocked on my home and work wifi networks so I don't need the skip.

I stuck a dot on the dashboard of the car so I could just tap it to unlock while driving. Going a step further, tried sticking the skip dot on my cell phone holder in my car so it would continually contact the back of the phone so the phone would stay unlocked while I was driving. But it didn't seem to work right when the car was in "driving mode" on the Moto Assist app. I can't explain, but it seemed to re-set the skip dot so it wouldn't work, and I'd have to reprogram it. I never really looked at the problem or tried to figure out exactly what was going on though. So I don't know if that was a real problem, idiosyncratic, user error or what. I might mess with that a little because that would be a handy feature. I do like the driving mode so won't disable that except maybe to try the dot again.

I tried to use the magnetic thing once or twice, but my cell phone usage on the go isn't high enough to warrant fussing with remembering to put a gizmo on every morning and keeping track of it Hell I dress very casually, don't even shave or wear a watch, so I'm not one who does much of anything to "get ready" in the morning and the magnetic skip would be totally incongruous with my lifestyle!

Conclusion: the things work just as advertised, and if you have a situation where they'd be handy, they will be.
 
I did the Moto Skip hack since I already had some NFC tags laying around. They work OK but one thing I'm not sure about is with a real Moto Skip do you have to press the unlock button first? Thats my only grip with the way I did it, and it may just be that the Skip has something from Moto that wakes it up first.

I have one on my desk at work and on my work badge, so as soon as I pull it out of my pocket I push the unlock and touch it to my badge and ta-da unlocked!!!!

Any insight would be great!!
 
What do you mean by "unlock button"? If my Moto X screen is off and I hold the back of my phone to my Skip it turns it on and unlocks it.
 
What do you mean by "unlock button"? If my Moto X screen is off and I hold the back of my phone to my Skip it turns it on and unlocks it.

OK thats what I was thinking! It doesnt work that way with just regular NFC tags
 
What do you mean by "unlock button"? If my Moto X screen is off and I hold the back of my phone to my Skip it turns it on and unlocks it.

Skip vs. Skip dots.

With the Skip, the screen can be off.

With the Skip dots, you have to wake the screen first.

Posted via Android Central App
 
Skip vs. Skip dots.

With the Skip, the screen can be off.

With the Skip dots, you have to wake the screen first.

Posted via Android Central App

Does anyone know the difference in the skip and the skip dots (besides the magnet)?

Posted via Android Central App
 
Skip vs. Skip dots.

With the Skip, the screen can be off.

With the Skip dots, you have to wake the screen first.

Posted via Android Central App

Basically, this. I have had it turn on with the Skip dots but it's not reliable.
 
I was trying to use the skip dots with the app Trigger (formerly NFC Task Manager.) When I try to set them up, the phone doesn't see them or it starts up the Skip Setup app that sets your lock screen behavior.

Anyone know if I need to buy some blank tags for any purpose other than bypassing the lock screen?

Sent from my Moto X
 
I used my skip dots on my desk at home and work for a while when I first got the phone. They worked fine. I could just set the phone on the skip dot and it would stay unlocked. I've since installed the "Delayed Lock" app with the wifi add-on and now my phone just stays unlocked on my home and work wifi networks so I don't need the skip.

I stuck a dot on the dashboard of the car so I could just tap it to unlock while driving. Going a step further, tried sticking the skip dot on my cell phone holder in my car so it would continually contact the back of the phone so the phone would stay unlocked while I was driving. But it didn't seem to work right when the car was in "driving mode" on the Moto Assist app. I can't explain, but it seemed to re-set the skip dot so it wouldn't work, and I'd have to reprogram it. I never really looked at the problem or tried to figure out exactly what was going on though. So I don't know if that was a real problem, idiosyncratic, user error or what. I might mess with that a little because that would be a handy feature. I do like the driving mode so won't disable that except maybe to try the dot again.

I tried to use the magnetic thing once or twice, but my cell phone usage on the go isn't high enough to warrant fussing with remembering to put a gizmo on every morning and keeping track of it Hell I dress very casually, don't even shave or wear a watch, so I'm not one who does much of anything to "get ready" in the morning and the magnetic skip would be totally incongruous with my lifestyle!

Conclusion: the things work just as advertised, and if you have a situation where they'd be handy, they will be.

I use the skip dot in the car holder to turn it on when I dock it then it switches to trusted Bluetooth once I start moving to keep it on.

Posted via Android Central App
 
I was trying to use the skip dots with the app Trigger (formerly NFC Task Manager.) When I try to set them up, the phone doesn't see them or it starts up the Skip Setup app that sets your lock screen behavior.

Anyone know if I need to buy some blank tags for any purpose other than bypassing the lock screen?

Sent from my Moto X

I have been trying the same thing and it seems like the SKIP Dots can only be used to unlock the phone. It doesn't seem like they can be used like a normal NFC to work with something like Trigger. I'm looking around to see if there is a hack, but I haven't found anything yet.
 
Basically, this. I have had it turn on with the Skip dots but it's not reliable.

Even the magnetic skip has been quite unreliable for me with the screen off. After a fresh reboot, it seems to work great, but if the phone has been on a while, it's spotty. And even with the screen on, there's sometimes a notable delay and/or I have to move it around a bit for it to detect the magnetic tag and unlock.
 
OK thats what I was thinking! It doesnt work that way with just regular NFC tags

The actual Skip has a magnet and the magnet wakes up the Moto X and allows the NFC tag (within the Skip) to unlock the phone.

I have a on again/off again relationship with the Skip. I'll use it for a week or two and then stop using it and then start using it again, etc....

I tend to use it mainly at work. I put the Skip on my opposite shirt sleeve cuff and then tap the phone and unlock. :)
 
So I need to buy generic NFC tags if I want to program them to do other tasks? It won't let me program the skip tags like you said the skip manager stars. Anyone have luck programming NFC tags on the Moto X?
 
This sounds like a neat idea, but unless you are in some sort of life or death situation where 1-2 seconds is going to matter, I don't see the usefulness of Skip. Just set your phone to never sleep if immediacy is such a concern.
 
Last edited:
I haven't found them that useful. The Face Unlock works so well on the Moto-X I've switched to using that full time.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
957,472
Messages
6,973,203
Members
3,163,824
Latest member
spoutti