This is potentially a bad idea, and I can explain an actual use case that happened a few weeks ago.
My neighbour had dropped her phone in some water, it was a Samsung S21, and the screen was messed up. The moment you tried to activate the screen, lines would appear across it. It was unusable.
Thankfully she had a spare phone available to use, but she needed to get a bunch of things setup on there (Google Mail, NHS for the Covid pass as she was travelling abroad).
She ran into an issue authenticating her Google Mail account - the password. She didn't remember it, so we tried the "Forgot Password" user flow.
For reasons unknown, the user flow insisted on sending a notification to her Samsung S21, even though we had swapped the SIM card from that phone into the new phone, and we had no way to swipe the notification on the S21 due to the screen being broke.
Somehow, we managed to trigger sending a text message with a code, and thankfully she got access to her Gmail account and other items.
But it was not a simple process, and there's no way your everyday person would have a clue how to deal with such cases (it confounded me and I'm a developer!), so I hope that someone with UX and QA chops is able to cater for scenarios like someone's phone screen being busted and knows how to provide alternative options that your everyday folk can get to grips with.
Just turn the phone off. That’s what Apple has you do when you need to turn off Find My iPhone but your phone is on and unable to be used. Even without the sim the device is still trusted, and as long as it’s connected to the internet it will try to authenticate with it. Also trusted contacts are also now a thing. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212515
Gotta love HN. OP talks about phone useflows that in "no way your everyday person would have a clue how to deal with such cases" on a Samsung phone. They get a reply about a hack about apple phones when unusable.
While it isn't helpful for this person, I'm happy that I read it so at least I know the "correct" solution to this problem now should I ever encounter it.
It's worth a shot though, and it kind of makes some sort of logical sense. Samsung and Apple have copied each other since the beginning, so it stands to reason this might work.
It’s not a hack, it’s expected behavior. Go to an Apple store with a broken screen, and this what they will have you do. If I remembered the title of the support article I would have given it to you.
My neighbour had dropped her phone in some water, it was a Samsung S21, and the screen was messed up. The moment you tried to activate the screen, lines would appear across it. It was unusable.
Thankfully she had a spare phone available to use, but she needed to get a bunch of things setup on there (Google Mail, NHS for the Covid pass as she was travelling abroad).
She ran into an issue authenticating her Google Mail account - the password. She didn't remember it, so we tried the "Forgot Password" user flow.
For reasons unknown, the user flow insisted on sending a notification to her Samsung S21, even though we had swapped the SIM card from that phone into the new phone, and we had no way to swipe the notification on the S21 due to the screen being broke.
Somehow, we managed to trigger sending a text message with a code, and thankfully she got access to her Gmail account and other items.
But it was not a simple process, and there's no way your everyday person would have a clue how to deal with such cases (it confounded me and I'm a developer!), so I hope that someone with UX and QA chops is able to cater for scenarios like someone's phone screen being busted and knows how to provide alternative options that your everyday folk can get to grips with.