Unlock Any Phone

Secret Codes That Unlock Hidden Features on Your Phone

Remember the fact that scene in warfare video games when the socially damaged code monkeys had been explaining to aspiring hacker Matthew Broderick all about "lower back doors" (i.e. secret pathways planted by means of programmers)? properly, that is sincerely a thing.

Coders have a storied lifestyle of baking in secret passageways (or on occasion, simply amusing little Easter eggs) that could most effective be accessed through inputting a unique "key." And so that tradition keeps inside the cellular age.

Unstructured Supplementary service data (u.s.a.) -- on occasion called "quick codes" or "function codes" -- is an extra-UI protocol, which permits people to access hidden features. This protocol turned into in the beginning created for GSM phones, however may be discovered on CDMA gadgets as well (if it's a group of acronym gibberish to you, here's a short primer).

these publicly available backchannels allow customers to without delay communicate with their carrier provider's computer systems and/or get right of entry to back-cease features of their tool. they're accessed by way of inputting them into the cellphone's dialer (the display screen you operate to start a phone call) and commonly start and end with the * or # keys with a series of numbers in between (there's close-to-zero threat that anybody would by chance access them).

they are not extraordinarily sensible. the majority don't actually need to recognise how their local mobile towers are performing or what their IMEI wide variety is (more on that later). nevertheless, it may be fun to mess around and spot what sudden capability your smartphone is hiding beneath the floor.