What can the Moto Skip do?

When the Moto X was launched, it didn’t come alone, but with a sidekick called the Moto Skip. This little device was often given out for free with some purchases and it served the purpose of unlocking your phone. The Skip is much like any other token or unlocking device that you pin somewhere and use to unlock your phone instead of introducing a PIN number or a pattern.

Nothing interesting so far, except the fact that a new Moto Skip device is coming! The patent has been filed and some leaks have occurred letting us know that Motorola has not given up on the Skip, on the contrary, it has decided to improve it. While the original model relied on NFC, the new Skip will be switching to Bluetooth technology.

With the new Moto Skip patent in place, Motorola wants to help you not only bypass unlocking your phone, but help you find it as well, by allowing you to ring your phone by pressing a button on the Moto Skip. That’s interesting, but what’s even more appealing is that apparently, Motorola will offer you an app for the Skip so that you can actually ring your Skip from your smartphone. Thus, if you’ve got your Moto Skip pinned to your keychain, and you suddenly find yourself unable of finding your keys, you can ring them! The Moto Skip, namely. The app can also bring up the last known location of the Skip as well, in case you lose it somewhere out of hearing range.

I would certainly benefit from the app that can ring my keys because I tend to misplace my keys quite often and I’ve got two cats who like shiny, noisy things, too.

Price-wise, we haven’t been told anything, but we suspect that it will probably retail for the same price the original Moto Skip did, at about $20. In any case, the Skip will probably come along to IFA Berlin with the Moto X+1 and Moto G, so there’s another neat little thing to look forward to at the IFA.