Breath test before your iPhone unlocks

Oct 22, 2026 Last reply: 16 hours ago 4 Replies
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Most attempts at keeping a drunk person off their phone rely on willpower or an app that anyone can close. This build takes a different route: the phone only unlocks after passing a breath test on a separate device.



The hardware is tidy. A white angled enclosure holds a color display that walks the user through each step, and a microcontroller wired with jumper cables sits on the back. The circular alcohol vapor sensor is mounted on top. On the phone side, a homepage shortcut opens a full-screen web page, and the breathalyzer talks to that page to trigger unlocking.



The flow reads well: the screen prompts a blow to unlock, runs a short deep-breath countdown, then shows a sniffing message. Once alcohol is detected, the phone lands on a red-tinted lock screen stating it stays locked, with only food delivery and ride icons available while Messages is disabled, and a blocked message reporting that iMessage stays locked until sober. Above 0.08 logged, an iOS Shortcut named Drunk Food places a DoorDash order for a 20-piece McNuggets, large fries, a Big Mac and two Gatorades, sent to the home address.



One thing is still open: this is a web page demo, and while the locking functionality exists, it does not actually lock the phone yet. That gap is the piece I would watch.


My favorite specific choice is the automatic DoorDash order once the logged reading passes 0.08. It is a genuinely funny touch, and sending it to a home address keeps the whole thing contained. The trade-off, in my view, is that everything rests on trusting that logged reading for both the lock and the order.

Does anyone know which alcohol sensor is on top of the enclosure? The circular module looks interesting, and the choice of sensor would matter a lot for how repeatable the readings are between one breath and the next.

The only detail that has come up is that the circular vapor sensor sits on a module marked Flying Fish. The maker has not said which exact sensor part it is, so the model itself is still an open question.

A variation worth trying would be packing the electronics into a phone case and adding GPS-based checks around bars. That would put the breath test wherever the night happens rather than wherever the enclosure happens to sit, and it would match how people actually move around on a night out.

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