Yes, you read the headline correct. Your phone can actually be a pretty awesome tool to help you protect your skin and prevent skin cancer. The best part - most of us all have phones and, good or bad, they’re always nearby nowadays. So we’ve got some clever ways to use your phone to help your skin…
1. Set Alarms
If you don’t already know, the recommendation is to reapply sunscreen every two hours (and more frequently of sweating or swimming). Instead of forgetting to reapply use your phone to remind you by setting an alarm for every two hours. That buzzing/sound will definitely alert you to do it!
2. Schedule Reminders
I use the reminder feature on my phone and calendar reminders for everything. It reminds me to call people on birthdays, to refill prescriptions, to book appointments, and on and on. Why not use this featured to remind yourself to perform monthly skin self-exams or to set-up annual skin exams with your doctor? I mean, who remembers to do these skin checks? I know I wouldn’t if I didn’t have a reminder set-up and I run a skin care company! And yes, it’s important to perform regular skin exams (to find out why check out our post “Top Tips for Spotting Skin Cancer”).
3. Take Photos
We all definitely use our cameras. If it’s not documented, did it really happen 
? So take a selfie of your skin. Take photos of spots, freckles, moles, etc. during your regular skin self-exams and track their progression over time. This documentation can let you know if anything has changed in terms of color, size, thickness, etc. Then you can easily send these photos to your doctor if anything concerning arises.
Quick tip – make sure you organize these photos in folders. I’m sure you have hundreds if not thousands of photos on your phone. So it’ll make these skin-selfies easier to find if they’re organized into folders.
4. Find An App
If you check the app store you can find a number of apps that help do all the above. Some of these apps feature mole trackers, magnifiers, and automated reminders. These apps help with early skin cancer detection but, as the Skin Cancer Foundation cautions on these apps, “no matter how good a phone app seems to be, steer clear of any that claim to diagnose skin cancers. Only a trained dermatologist can do that.”
5. Communicate with Family and Friends
Use your phone to remind and connect with family and friends to protect their skin and conduct regular skin exams. Heck, why not post about your regular checkup on social media? It might inspire some folks to follow suit. Today we have the ability to reach more and more people faster than ever thanks to our phones. So share info (hey, we have a lot of it here) and spread the word about the importance of sunscreen, sun protection and preventing skin cancer.
So there you have it, five easy ways your phone can go a long way to keeping your skin safe and healthy. For even more skin cancer tips check out our Skin Cancer series.
