This phone case flips over with just one word to prevent doomscrolling at the dinner table

We've all been there. You head out for a pint with your mates, and before the first round's even poured, everyone's heads are down – thumbs scrolling, eyes glazed. Enter: The Flipper.

Well now, Heineken has cooked up a prototype phone case with one mission: Stop the doomscrolling and bring back the good old-fashioned pub chat.

This nifty little gadget uses voice detection to literally flip your phone face down the moment it senses people are having fun. So instead of getting distracted by your cousin's third dog photo of the day, you're actually present.

Here's the clever part – it's trained to listen out for the word "cheers”. Because if there's one thing that means you’re out enjoying yourself IRL, it's a collective clink of glasses.

It's all part of Heineken's #SocialOffSocials campaign, tackling the modern-day plague known as phubbing – aka ignoring the people around you because you're glued to your screen. According to a recent study, nearly half of adults are guilty of it.

Heineken

'The Flipper’ isn’t the first device Heinekenhas created in its bid to tackle digital overload. Last year, the beer brand launched ‘The Boring Phone’ – a stylish phone that comes without all the features that make the modern smartphone so distracting. The devices became a sellout success, proving that social lives are more enriching when there’s less on your phone. In fact, they were so popular that brand later launched ‘The Boring Mode’ – a way of turning any smartphone into a Boring Phone.

"I’m trying to spend less time on my phone and more time socializing and so far my strategy has been ‘be really hard on myself’. But that evidently doesn't work very well. So I love ‘The Flipper’ – it's just a clever solution and a good reminder for me to not get distracted by social media when I'm trying to socialize," inventor Simone Giertz said.

Meanwhile, Nabil Nasser, Global Head of Heineken, added: "Smartphones and their array of social media apps are essential in our everyday lives, but the habit of scrolling through socials rather than having a good time in person is affecting the quality of our face-to-face interactions.

"Bars are some of the best places to socialise and make new connections, and we thought The Flipper is a fun way to encourage people to flip off their socials and demonstrate why being present with those around you is so important."

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