On your phone

The Android build is the same Rust application as the desktop one, with an interface built for a phone. Install it from Releases — HookEcho-arm64-v8a.apk, arm64, Android 10 or newer. See Install for the two ways to sideload it.

Getting around

Same three floating pieces as the desktop app: a search pill, an alert badge, and the scrubber along the bottom. Anything you’d browse rather than watch opens as a sheet you can drag up from the bottom.

• Long-press the map to inspect what’s under your finger.
• Double-tap and drag up or down to zoom with one hand.
• Swipe sideways to move between panes.
• The app buzzes on scrubber ticks, sheet snaps, and new warnings.

Notifications with the app closed

Turn on the background alert service and the phone tells you about warnings for your saved locations whether or not HookEcho is running, tiered watch / warning / emergency, with a tornado emergency arriving at urgent priority. Tapping a notification opens the app at that storm. Android is asked for notification permission only at the moment you switch an alert feature on — never at install.

A home-screen widget shows current radar and what’s warned at your saved locations, and there’s a quick-settings tile for a one-swipe look.

Out in the field

• Chase mode puts your live GPS position on the map as a blue dot, with a storm-relative readout: closest approach, and an escape bearing.
• Offline chase packs pre-download the basemap tiles for an area before you drive into it. Radar still needs a data connection; the map underneath it won’t.
• Position sharing — opt in, and every HookEcho on the same network sees everyone’s dot. Off-network, point it at a relay URL you host yourself.

Keeping it fast

Phones are not workstations. Drop the 3D quality preset, turn off the animated wind particles, and close station cards you aren’t reading. There’s a battery-saver mode that slows the polling and repaint cadence when you’re running on what’s left of the battery.