Use my device for my search URLs
Turn this on and each of your searches is checked from your own phone the moment it is due, with our servers stepping in whenever the phone cannot.
Set up in a minute
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Find the second switch under Settings › Advanced › Network
Find the second switch under Settings › Advanced › Network
‘Use my device for my search URLs’ is the second of the two switches and includes the first: your searches are loaded from your connection and, where a site needs a real browser, opened in one inside the app. The first time you enable either switch a short consent sheet explains the deal; confirm it once.
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Set the rules your phone should follow
Set the rules your phone should follow
Below the switches you choose whether mobile data is allowed (Wi-Fi only to begin with), how much data a day the phone may spend (200 MB unless you move it), and whether it should only work while charging. The battery rule is fixed: above 20 % or plugged in, never in battery saver. These rules decide which checks the phone takes and which our servers keep.
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Leave it alone and glance at the card now and then
Leave it alone and glance at the card now and then
The status card says whether the phone is ready, paused, over budget or paused by Android, plus the checks made today, the data they used, and the last site and time. While a check runs, a quiet notification reads ‘N checks today · tap to pause’.
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How a due search gets to your phone
When one of your searches comes due, we send your phone a silent push. The app wakes, asks us for the job and loads the search page. For a site that serves a plain page that is the whole story. For a site that only draws its list inside a browser, the app opens the page in a hidden browser view of its own, waits for the list, dismisses the cookie banner where there is one, and scrolls so the page loads everything it has.
The page text then goes to us. We find the listings, drop the ones you have already been told about and send the alerts through the channels you chose, as always. About a minute after the last job the app goes idle; nothing runs in the background between checks.
When our servers take over, and why nothing is lost
The phone is off, asleep, away from Wi-Fi, low on battery, in battery saver, over its budget, or stopped by Android’s background limit: in every one of these cases the check is not dropped. If the phone has not picked a job up within about half a minute, our servers run it instead. The alert reaches you either way, from the same search; only where the page was loaded from differs, and the card tells you which.
So there is no catching up to do. Switch your phone back on in the morning and nothing was missed overnight: those checks were made from our side, and your phone takes over again from the next one.
Battery and data, in plain numbers
A check is short and the app only runs while there is one to make, so battery is rarely a concern; the 20 % floor and the charging-only option exist for the days it would be. Data is the number to watch: a page opened in a browser weighs more than a plain one, even though pictures are never loaded. The default 200 MB a day covers a few searches checked through the day; the card shows what today really cost, and the budget moves anywhere between 50 MB and 1 GB.
Android allows an app a fixed amount of background time per day. Many searches checked often could reach it; then the card reads ‘paused by Android until tomorrow’ and our servers cover the rest of the day.
What is never done on your phone
Other people’s searches: a phone receives jobs for its owner’s account only, enforced where the jobs are handed out, not in the app. Sites that need a login, a saved session or cookies: those stay on our servers, and no password, session or cookie is ever placed on your phone. Sites that need one of our paid routes: the same.
And nothing your phone sends back is ever run. It is page text, read by us the way we read every page, from any source.
A known limit right now: some sites hand the phone a shorter list
On sites that build their list inside the browser, a check made from the phone can currently return fewer listings than the same check from our servers; on one large marketplace we measured about a quarter of the list. The cause is found and the fix is in the next app update. Until it lands, a search on such a site may look thinner from the phone than before.
If that bothers you, switch this second option off and keep the first: plain-page sites keep running from your connection, browser sites return to our servers, and your searches are untouched.
❓Frequently asked questions
Does the first switch turn on by itself?
Yes. Using your device includes using your network, so the first switch comes on with the second and goes off with it.
Does my plan change in any way?
No. How many searches you run and how often they are checked is set by your plan; this switch only moves the work to your phone when it can take it.
Is this a VPN or a proxy?
No. Nothing of ours is routed through your phone; it opens your own search pages, as you would, and sends us the text.
What does ‘paused by Android until tomorrow’ mean?
Android capped the app’s background time for the day. Our servers make the checks until it resets; nothing to do.
How do I turn it off?
Switch it off in Settings › Advanced › Network. Your phone is disconnected at once and every search continues from our servers.
Can I use it on mobile data?
Allow mobile data in the rules and it will; the daily budget applies to it just as to Wi-Fi.
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