Where to put your Spark: desk, bedside, bag or a shared room

Spark is a small Bluetooth device that makes a focus zone. Bring your paired phone near it and the apps you chose lock by themselves, within moments. Move away and they come back. There is no tap and no button, so there is nothing to remember to start. That changes the only question you have to answer: not when to lock, but where.

LOCKED

IN RANGE · LOCKED

UNLOCKED

OUT OF RANGE

How far the zone reaches

Spark's range covers about a room, and more in open spaces. Walls, floors and furniture reduce it. So think in rooms, not distances: put Spark in the room where you want focus, not the next one over, and expect a phone on the far side of a wall to be outside the zone. We'll publish real numbers once we've tested finished units in real homes.

Each change takes a moment, on purpose. A phone sitting right at the edge of the range would otherwise flicker between locked and unlocked, so Spark waits briefly before it decides.

On the study or office desk

The default, and the one most people want. Spark sits next to your books or your laptop. Sit down and your apps go quiet; get up for lunch and they're back. Focus starts where Spark is, and you never had to decide to start it.

• Put it on the desk itself, not in a drawer under a pile of files. Metal drawers and cabinets can cut the signal.
• If your desk is against a wall you share with the living room, remember the zone may not reach through it — which is usually what you want.
• Add a schedule if the desk is also where you relax in the evening, so the zone is only active during your working hours — 9 AM to 6 PM, say.

On the bedside table

For the scroll that starts at 11 p.m. and ends at 1. With Spark beside the bed, the feeds are locked whenever your phone is in bed with you. Set a schedule for the night hours so the bedroom is not locked all afternoon too.

Calls always get through, whatever you block. Your alarm and anything else you rely on stay open as long as you leave them out of the mode — so leave the clock app off the list.

In your bag

Spark is pocket-sized. Keep it in your bag and your apps stay locked wherever you go — the bus, the library, the coaching centre. That is the strictest place it can live, because the zone travels with you. To get your apps back you have to take Spark out, leave it somewhere and walk away from it.

If you only want that during the day, set a schedule and the zone is only active then. Without one, a bag that sits next to you all evening keeps your apps locked all evening.

In a shared room

Every paired phone in range is locked; a phone that was never paired — a stranger's, a roommate's, a guest's — is never affected. So one Spark on a shared table covers everyone who chose to pair with it, and nobody who didn't. How many people that can be depends on the edition: Spark Home pairs with up to 5 phones, and Spark Business with any number.

• Hostel room: on the shared study table, with a roommate who wants it too. If they don't, nothing changes for them. Spark Home covers a room of up to 5.
• Family dinner table: everyone pairs once, Spark stays on the table, and phones go quiet while you eat. Add a schedule for meal times so the room is not locked all day.
• Office meeting room: on the table, so a meeting starts without anybody announcing phones away. A team bigger than 5 needs Spark Business.

Which edition fits which place

Spark Home and Spark Business are the same device with the same app and the same focus zone. The only difference is how many phones one Spark pairs with.

• <b>Spark Home</b> — up to 5 phones. Your study desk, your bedside, your bag, the family dinner table, a hostel room you share with one or two others.
• <b>Spark Business</b> — any number of phones. An office floor or meeting room, a classroom, a coaching centre, a library or a reading room, where the people in the room keep changing.

Places that don't work well

• Another room. It feels as if distance should help, but a Spark in another room just means your phone is out of range, so nothing is locked.
• Inside a steel tin, a metal cupboard or a drawer full of tools. Metal blocks the signal, and to your phone that can look the same as walking away.
• Somewhere you sometimes are and sometimes aren't — a sofa arm, a shared shelf. The zone should match a place you sit down in on purpose.