What changed, what has been tested, and what hasn’t. Newest first. Jump to what’s next.
Release candidates 3 and 4
New in rc4: resources
Separate fields for phone, web, email, address, hours and eligibility, with Call, Map, Open, Email and Copy on each, and Copy all.
Better imports. Street addresses and PO Boxes are picked up, phone extensions stay with their number, fax numbers aren’t treated as contacts, and you can paste text instead of picking a file. Each card has a Category button to correct the guess.
More categories. Fifteen in all. The eight common ones come first, with More for the rest.
Location is its own share choice. Leave it unchecked and no address, map link or coordinates go with the card.
Copy buttons survive a lock. A number or address copied from a resource card stays on the clipboard so you can paste it into the dialer or maps. Text copied from your notes is still cleared, and panic lock clears everything.
In rc3
One permanent release key. Every release from rc3 on is signed with the same key, so later updates install in place and keep your data. Earlier Previews used a different key, which is why moving over is a one-time backup and restore.
New layout. A bottom bar with Home, Sweep, Resources and Notes. One large title per screen, Tools and Lock one tap away, and Back that returns where you came from. Light and dark palettes are fixed, not taken from your wallpaper. Nothing animates.
Running is not the same as receiving. Watch says Not confirmed yet until it has actually heard a signal, and says so again if it goes quiet for more than 20 minutes. Time it couldn’t listen isn’t counted as covered.
More in Sweep. Guided checks for common situations, Away mode for a phone left alone, an opt-in log of wrong lock-screen entries, trusted Wi-Fi access points, a link check, a QR reader and a high-tone listen.
Importing resources from PDF, Word, text, CSV or JSON files, with every card reviewed before it’s added.
Safer restores. A failed restore never deletes a kept vault, and a large backup no longer runs out of time waiting for the unlock.
Tested so far
Unit tests and Android lint pass on the build machine: 459 unit tests for rc3 and 481 for rc4, with no lint errors.
rc3’s main screens and tools were rendered in light and dark on an Android 15 emulator, with every text checked at 4.5:1 contrast or better.
Storage and upgrade checks pass on Android 9 and Android 15 emulators.
Not tested yet
Real phones. Screen-off watching, battery use, Away mode and the lock delay all depend on how each phone manages background work, and none of that has been checked on a device. The beta list has the details.
Also on Nov 12
This website went up, with the signed rc4 APK on the Download page.
What’s next
Nothing here has a date, and nothing is promised. It’s what the project’s own notes say is planned or worth doing.
Planned: testing on real phones
Device testing on Android 14, 15 and 16: the watch with the screen off for an hour or more, battery use, the watch journal after a restart or a crash, every permission refused or taken away, and how the phone check reads on Samsung’s One UI. The beta page has the list.
An independent review of the security and the code.
Fixing whatever those turn up.
Ideas written down, not started
Pinned resources. A few cards you use all the time, one tap away. (The other half of this idea, Call and Map buttons on each card, shipped in rc4.)
Checklists you can edit. Adapt a small template to an outing, an appointment or a workday instead of one fixed list.
Travel plans with a date, and handing a reminder to your phone’s clock or calendar app, so a time that has already passed doesn’t get set for tomorrow by accident.
Backup at a glance. When you last made a backup, and a clear summary after a restore.
Optional encryption for portable backups. It needs a way to recover first that doesn’t bring back a required app password.
Unfinished forms that survive. Switching to messages or maps and back without losing what you were typing.
Won’t be built
Automatic wiping. Field Watch exists to keep your record, so it never deletes it on its own.
Sending messages, calling anyone or contacting emergency services for you.
Changing your phone’s settings, or uploading anything.
Not claimed, now or later: spotting a tracker that only uses the mobile network, or proving nothing is there.
Sweep and Watch
The biggest single change so far: a set of checks for when you think you’re being watched or followed. It’s part of rc3.
Watch runs in the background with a visible notification and reports its own coverage: Active, Degraded, Interrupted or Stopped, with the reason. Time it couldn’t listen is reported as a gap, never as covered.
An encrypted watch journal keeps the record through a restart or a crash and moves into your vault at the next unlock. It never holds a position, a Bluetooth address, audio or a camera image.
Guided checks for being followed, a room, a car, this phone, a phone someone else had, and going to meet someone.
Plain-language lists. Bluetooth and network rows say what a device most likely is. Signal strength is shown as strong or weak, not as a distance.
More checks: Away mode, an opt-in log of wrong lock-screen entries, more phone settings, trusted Wi-Fi access points, a link check that opens nothing, a QR reader and a 10-second high-tone listen.
Importing resources from a PDF, Word, text, CSV or JSON file, every card reviewed before it’s added.
Tested
441 unit tests passed with no lint errors. Nothing in this batch had run on a phone.
Safer restores and backups
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Importing or restoring keeps the vault it replaces on the phone first.
A portable backup can no longer end up impossible to create.
Every Bluetooth manufacturer entry is classified, and every dialog is hidden from screenshots.
Back in use: 1.0 release candidates 1 and 2
Field Watch came back for practical, everyday use, and for sharing with independent providers and people in difficult circumstances. The separate 0.9 line was folded into this one.
Your phone’s own unlock (fingerprint, face or screen lock) instead of a separate app password. An older vault with a password enrolls once, and one you can’t open is kept, never deleted.
Home with eight immediate needs, your own next steps and a heading-out checklist.
Resource cards with search, and packs you can share and import.
Travel arithmetic for a latest start time, with saved plans.
Portable backups you can move to another phone.
rc2 fixed unreadable dark text found in rc1, with complete light and dark palettes and larger secondary text.
Tested
53 unit tests and Android lint passed. Storage, upgrade and launcher checks passed on an Android 9 emulator. These were Preview builds, signed with a development key.
First versions, 0.2 to 0.8.1
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0.2: an encrypted incident log and a security checklist.
0.3: quick capture, a log of when the vault was opened, and panic lock by shake or volume button.
0.4 and 0.5: a Bluetooth inspector that sorts tracker formats from ordinary noise.
0.6 and 0.7: a local network device list and a check of risky phone settings.
0.8: clipboard clearing on lock and QR export of a note.
0.8.1: backups that are checked before anything is replaced, and screens hidden from screenshots and Recents.
Automatic wiping was looked at on the first day and turned down, for the reason under What’s next. In August and September it moved to newer build tools and was built against Android 15.