Spider in Phone Prank

Hand someone your phone and wait.

Spider in Phone puts a lifelike spider on the screen, on top of whatever app happens to be open. It walks over their messages, their game, their photos, and it does not care what they were in the middle of.

The prank is harmless. The spider cannot be touched and it blocks nothing at all. Every tap, swipe and keystroke goes straight through to the app underneath, so the phone carries on working exactly as normal while the spider runs across it. That is what makes it land, and it is also why nobody ends up locked out of anything.

You are always in control. Stop it from the notification, stop it from inside the app, or set it to end by itself after a minute or two.

DRAWN TO MOVE LIKE THE REAL THING

There is no video here and no photograph. Every spider is built from scratch and animated frame by frame, so it behaves the way one actually does.

• Its feet stay planted on the screen while its body walks over them, instead of sliding along underneath it
• The legs step in the proper alternating order, four at a time
• It sprints, freezes dead still, then sprints again, the way a house spider does
• One light source, soft shadows, and a body that lifts off the glass as it steps

12 SPIDERS TO CHOOSE FROM

House spider, black widow, tarantula, brown recluse, wolf spider, jumping spider, garden orbweaver, huntsman, daddy long legs, camel spider, cobalt tarantula and a pale ghost spider. Each one has its own look, markings, eye arrangement, leg span and temperament. The huntsman is gone before you blink. The tarantula could not be less bothered.

SET IT UP HOWEVER YOU LIKE

• Size, from barely there to alarmingly large
• Speed, from a slow creep to a flat sprint
• Up to six spiders at once
• Scuttle around, cross the screen, follow the edges, or drop down on a thread of silk
• A start delay, so you can hand the phone over before anything appears
• Stop by itself after 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes
• The sound of legs on a hard surface, off by default so nothing gives it away early
• A short buzz as it arrives, like something landing on the phone
• A shadow underneath and a cobweb in the corner, both optional

NOTHING TO SIGN UP FOR

You are never asked to create an account or sign in. Every spider and the skittering sound are generated on your phone rather than shipped as files, so the download stays small.

ABOUT THE PERMISSION

Android needs "Display over other apps" before anything can be drawn on top of another app. That is the entire trick, and it is the only thing this app uses the permission for.

KEEP IT FRIENDLY

It is a joke app, so pick your moment. Skip it on anyone with a spider phobia or a heart condition, and never while somebody is driving.