Set up Phone check-in

Phone check-in is an iPhone Shortcut. When someone you pick texts your secret code, your iPhone sends them its location and photos. For now you build the Shortcut yourself, and FirstHour shows you the parts Apple makes you do. You need a second person to test it with.

Before you start

• Pick a person you trust. They get your location and your photos by text, so choose someone who would act on them. FirstHour is not the one who receives them.
• Our advice: tell them the plan now, while everything is calm, so they know what the code means when it arrives.

Find Phone check-in

1. Open the Plan B tab. Scroll to Tips. If Phone check-in isn't one of the four tips shown, tap See all 16 tips.
2. Tap Phone check-in. Its line says "A secret text makes it send its location and two photos." You can also reach the same list from Settings, under Tips and guides.

The page has four numbered steps: Add the check-in, Your secret code, Make the secret-text trigger and Test it together. A note at the bottom says it works while your iPhone is on and connected, even locked, and can't help once it's switched off.

1. Add the check-in

A one-tap Add isn't available yet. For now, the Add to Shortcuts button opens a note explaining that, so you build the Shortcut yourself in Apple's Shortcuts app.

FirstHour's iOS 27 pictures show a Shortcut named FirstHour Check-in with three actions: Get Current Location, Take Photo and Send Message. FirstHour doesn't walk you through setting these up. Set Send Message to go to the person you picked, and when you test, check that the location and photos really arrive. For Apple's own help with Shortcuts, see the Sources below.

Then add FirstHour's own last step to the end of your Shortcut. Under Add to Shortcuts FirstHour shows three pictures, with Back and Next buttons:

1. Open your check-in for editing. On iOS 26, open Shortcuts and tap ••• on your check-in. On iOS 27 and later, open Shortcuts, tap your check-in, then Edit.
2. Search for FirstHour. The search box is at the bottom.
3. Tap "Record that the check-in ran". It goes in last, after Send Message. Keep it last.

This step saves one thing: the time the check-in ran, on your iPhone. It runs without opening FirstHour, including on a locked iPhone. It's how FirstHour can show "Worked on" and a date later.

2. Your secret code

FirstHour makes the code for you the first time you open the page. It starts with FH- and has four more letters or numbers, with no zero, one, I, L or O, so it's easy to read aloud and type.

1. Tell only the person who'd text it. Tap Send it to your person and choose them in the share sheet. The message says: "If my iPhone is ever lost or stolen, text me just this:" followed by your code, and explains that your phone will send its location and two photos.
2. Tap Copy if you want the code on your clipboard. The button changes to Copied.

Tapping Copy puts the code on your clipboard. Opening the picture-by-picture steps in the next section copies it too. Like anything you copy, it can stay there until you copy something else. See What your clipboard gives away.

3. Make the secret-text trigger

Apple makes you do this part yourself, in a few taps. FirstHour shows it picture by picture.

1. Tap Show me, picture by picture. FirstHour copies your code so it's ready to paste, and the pictures open with Back and Next buttons. Tap Open Shortcuts to go to the Shortcuts app. Tap Hide the pictures to close them.

The pictures differ by iOS version. These are FirstHour's steps, not Apple's.

On iOS 26

1. Open Shortcuts and tap Automation, at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap +, at the top right. If you've never made one, tap New Automation instead.
3. Scroll down and choose Message.
4. Set Message Contains. Tap Choose, then paste your code.
5. Set Sender. Choose your person. FirstHour says only their text will start it.
6. Choose Run Immediately, then Next. FirstHour says that otherwise iPhone waits for a tap, and a thief won't tap.
7. Choose your check-in from My Shortcuts. FirstHour says it's saved by itself.

On iOS 27 and later

The trigger sits inside the Shortcut itself.

1. Open Shortcuts, tap your check-in, then Edit.
2. Tap Search, then Automation. Search is at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll down and choose Message, under Communication.
4. Set Sender is. Choose your person.
5. Tap Add Filter, then paste your code as "Message contains". Then go back. FirstHour says it's saved by itself.

These iOS 27 pictures don't mention Run Immediately. Apple's guide says a personal automation can run without asking: open the shortcut, tap Edit, tap the Info button, tap Privacy, then turn on Allow Running When Locked. Apple adds that you may also need to set individual actions to run automatically. Our advice: after you build it, check this setting and test it, as below.

What Apple's Shortcuts does here

• Apple describes the Message trigger as starting when you receive a message from a sender you added (Sender), or a message containing a phrase you added (Message Contains). Apple says that if you add more than one, all criteria must be met.
• Apple says that when the event happens you get a notification asking you to run the automation, and that you can enable an automation to run without asking. On iOS 26, FirstHour's steps tell you to choose Run Immediately for that reason.
• When an automation runs without asking, Apple says it won't notify you when it's triggered.
• Apple says automations are specific to a device. They're backed up to iCloud but turned off on other devices that sync them.

4. Test it together

1. Run the Shortcut once from Shortcuts, using Open Shortcuts in FirstHour. Tap Allow on each question iPhone asks. FirstHour says this is so it works when your phone is stolen.
2. Ask your person to text the code. FirstHour notices by itself when the Shortcut runs, through its last step.
3. Look for "Worked on" and a date, with a tick. Until then you see "Waiting for the first run…".

If the text arrived but FirstHour didn't notice, for example because your Shortcut doesn't have FirstHour's last step, tap It arrived, but FirstHour didn't notice. FirstHour then says "You confirmed it arrived", and you can tap Undo. A run FirstHour recorded counts for more than your own confirmation.

After 90 days with no recorded run, FirstHour says "Hasn't run since" the date and "test it again". It says a changed contact or setting can stop it. When the page counts as done, Plan B shows a tick on Phone check-in.

What it does and doesn't do

• It works while your iPhone is on and connected, even locked, FirstHour says. It can't help once the iPhone is switched off.
• Connected is FirstHour's word. The app doesn't spell out whether that means signal, Wi-Fi or both, so check by testing. FirstHour's tip "Block Airplane Mode when locked" says a thief who can turn on Airplane Mode from the Lock Screen would stop the check-in, which is why it suggests switching off Control Center access when locked.
• Your location and photos go to the person you pick, by text from your Shortcut, so they travel the way any text message does. FirstHour doesn't receive them. This matches our privacy page.
• FirstHour's own step saves only the time the check-in ran, on your iPhone.
• The code is not a password. FirstHour's steps say only your chosen person's text will start it, and Apple says the trigger needs all your criteria to be met. Anyone who learns the code and can send you a text that matches the Sender you chose could start it. Apple says Message Contains matches a message containing the phrase, not only that exact text. Our advice: share the code with one person only, and don't post it.
• Every run sends your location and photos, including when you didn't mean to start it. Our advice: keep the Shortcut's recipient to the same person who has the code.
• FirstHour can't see your Shortcuts. It doesn't know if you deleted the Shortcut or its trigger, or changed the person.

Turn it off, remove it or change it

1. To pause the trigger, open Shortcuts, go to the automation list, select the automation, turn off "Enable This Automation" and tap Done. That's Apple's step for personal automations. FirstHour's iOS 27 steps put the trigger inside the Shortcut, so the screens may look different there.
2. To remove it, delete the Shortcut and its automation in Shortcuts. FirstHour can't do this for you.
3. Tell FirstHour. On the Phone check-in page, under "Test it together", tap I removed it. It appears once FirstHour has recorded a run or you've confirmed the text arrived. It asks "Mark the check-in as removed?" Tap Mark as removed. Plan B then counts it as not set up until you set it up and it runs again. Your secret code stays the same.
4. To use a different person or code, FirstHour has no button for either. The code stays the same, so you'd change the Message Contains and Sender in Shortcuts yourself and then test again. We haven't confirmed Apple's steps for editing a trigger.

Good to know

• The one-tap Add isn't here yet. Until it is, the Shortcut's three actions are yours to build.
• Pictures in the app are drawn sketches of Shortcuts on iOS 26 and iOS 27. Your screens may look a little different.
• This is one part of getting ready. For the rest, see Make your first-hour plan and If your phone goes missing.
• There's more about Plan B on the Plan B page.

Common questions

Sources

• Intro to shortcuts with automations on iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, read 5 November 2026
• Add automations to Shortcuts on iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, read 5 November 2026
• Communication triggers in Shortcuts on iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, read 5 November 2026
• Enable or disable a personal automation in Shortcuts on iPhone or iPad, Apple Support, read 5 November 2026