T-Mobile is reportedly working on an app that unlocks your handset

Earlier last week it was announced that the phone unlocking bill had been passed by the Senate. What does this mean for the average user? Well it basically means that you are allowed to unlock phones legally, where previously a law had made it so that unlocking your phone was considered an illegal act, thus making it difficult for users who travel a lot to use a different SIM card. So with the new law in effect, users are allowed to unlock the phone themselves, head to their carrier, or seek out a technician to do it for them. However it seems that T-Mobile could be thinking about making the process a lot simpler and straightforward.

Just before the Uncarrier 5.0 event last month, we received information from a T-Mobile test engineer telling us that the test version of the upcoming Galaxy Avant came equipped with a device unlocking app. The source told us that the app worked very simply. But where we were a little unconvinced was when we were told that the app just “disappeared” once it had been used. However, we’ve been sent an internal guide today showing that such an app is in development and that T-Mobile has a guide set up for it. From the information in the guide it would appear that the app is only going to be compatible with specific Android phones. Right now, that’s only the unreleased Samsung Galaxy Avant. It would also seem like the process of unlocking a smartphone is very simple. All the customer would need to do is launch the Device Unlock app and tap ‘Continue’. The app will connect the smartphone to the server and then offer the choice of a temporary or permanent unlock. Once selected, the device requests the unlock and will then inform the user if the request has been successful. A handset reboot is required for both kinds of unlock request.