Terms and privacy
What Bag Guard is
Bag Guard is an alarm inside the phone. The armed phone lies in the bag; when someone moves it, the phone first warns, then plays a loud siren at full volume and lights up the screen. It is meant to draw attention and to deter. It will not physically stop anyone.
How it works
- Guarding happens only inside iOS Guided Access. While the session is on, nobody can close the app, switch to another one or turn the phone down with the buttons.
- You arm with one tap, after a countdown you set yourself for putting the phone away.
- To stop: triple-click the lock button, enter the Guided Access passcode or use Face ID or Touch ID, tap "End". Ending the session disarms the alarm by itself.
- While guarding, the screen stays on (Display Auto-Lock: Never), which uses the battery faster than usual.
Important for your safety
During a Guided Access session the iPhone cannot make an emergency call, and Emergency SOS and Crash Detection do not work. That is how iOS behaves, not the app. End the session before you might need any of them, and do not arm a phone that someone may need in an emergency.
What Bag Guard does not do
- It does not prevent theft and will not stop a thief.
- It does not recover stolen belongings and does not locate them.
- It sends no alerts to an Apple Watch, to another phone or by SMS.
- It does not work when the phone is off, when the battery dies, when the phone is force-restarted, when the app is deleted, or when guarding happens outside Guided Access. Guided Access does not block a forced restart (the button combination). Whoever wants to do it has to take the phone out of the bag first, so the alarm has time to go off, but it goes quiet after the restart.
- It does not know who moves the bag. On a bus, a train or a boat the rocking alone sets off the alarm.
- It is no substitute for insurance, for looking after your things, or for common sense.
The closest comparison is a car alarm: it turns away a share of attempts, because a thief looks for the target nobody is watching, but it will not stop someone who ignores the noise and walks off with the bag anyway. This is extra prevention, not certainty.
How well it works depends on your settings
Some settings live in iOS, out of an app's reach, and stay with you. The app walks you through them the first time and reminds you, but cannot force them:
- Guided Access on in Settings, Display Auto-Lock: Never.
- In Session Settings, off: Side Button, Volume Buttons, Time Limit. Without that, a thief can lock the screen or turn the siren down.
- Volume at maximum before the session starts; afterwards the volume buttons do nothing and the siren plays as loud as you left it.
- Sound from the phone's own speaker. Headphones, an intercom, CarPlay or any other device that has the sound would take the siren; the app does not arm until the sound is back on the phone. If headphones connect after arming (AirPods within range of the phone, for example), the app moves the siren to the phone's speaker only when it has the microphone permission; without it the siren may play in the headphones. Headphones connected during the countdown stop the arming.
- A phone call, FaceTime or an alarm clock can interrupt the siren for a moment; once they are over, the siren carries on.
- The screen stays lit the whole time. With a weak battery or in heat (a bag in the sun) the iPhone may switch itself off; the app warns about this before arming.
- Sensor sensitivity and where the bag lies change the outcome too.
Liability
The app is provided as it is. To the extent permitted by law, the author is not liable for theft, loss of or damage to property, for indirect damages, for battery use, or for the behaviour of iOS and the hardware. This does not affect statutory consumer rights or liability for intentional harm.
Worth doing regardless of this app
- Turn on Find My and iCloud backup, so you have a chance to locate or erase the phone. That is no certainty either: a phone that is switched off or offline can be impossible to find.
- Set a passcode and Face ID or Touch ID.
- Consider insuring your equipment if you carry expensive things.
Data
The app has no account and no server of its own. It collects no personal data, builds no profile, shows no ads and does not track you across other apps. Stored on the phone (in the iOS Keychain) are only: your settings, how many of the free armings have been used, the date your protection is paid until, and which instruction screens you have already seen. The motion sensors are used only while guarding and their readings never leave the phone. The app records nothing and uses neither the camera nor your location. The microphone permission, if you give it, serves only to move the siren to the phone's speaker when headphones have taken the sound; the microphone is not used to record.
Purchases go through the App Store. To check that a purchase is valid, the app uses the RevenueCat service, which receives an anonymous installation identifier and purchase receipts from the App Store, without your name, e-mail address or card details.
Plans and payments
The first 3 armings are free. They need no purchase, no trial and nothing to be entered. An arming counts once guarding has begun; a countdown cancelled before it ends does not count.
After that, arming the alarm needs an active plan. There are four to choose from:
- A day: a one-time purchase for 24 hours. It does not renew.
- A week, a month and a year: subscriptions. They renew by themselves for another period of the same length until you end them.
The yearly plan may start with a free trial. Its length and the price after it are shown in the app and on Apple's sheet before you confirm. If you do not end the subscription at least a day before the trial is over, Apple charges for the year. The trial is available once per Apple ID.
You end a subscription in the phone's Settings (your name, then Subscriptions) or with the button on the "Your protection" screen in the app, at least a day before the renewal. After that, protection works until the end of the period you paid for. Deleting the app does not end a subscription.
Prices in your currency are shown in the app before you buy. Payments, invoices and refunds are handled by Apple; the author has no access to your payment details.
Contact and changes
Questions and reports: kontakt@websly.pl (or the report button in the app's top bar). These terms may change together with the app; the current version is always here, inside the app. This version: 2 October 2026.