A new app aims to turn thousands of networked old Android phones into a distributed listening network that can detect incoming drones, according to Tom's Hardware.
The concept relies on acoustic mapping. Rather than depending on expensive radar, the system would use the microphones in ordinary phones to pick up the distinctive sound of drones such as the Iranian-designed Shahed. By crowd-sourcing audio from a large number of devices spread across an area, the app could detect these aircraft and help map their location and direction of travel.
According to Tom's Hardware, the goal is to spot the drones long before they reach their targets, giving defenders more warning time. The approach is pitched as a way to catch small, low-RCS (radar cross-section) military targets — aircraft that are deliberately designed to be hard for conventional radar systems to see. Sound, unlike radar reflections, does not depend on a target being large or radar-reflective.
The reliance on old, networked Android phones is central to the idea. It suggests a low-cost, scalable detection layer built from hardware many people already own, rather than purpose-built sensors. A denser network of phones means more microphones contributing to the acoustic picture.
Why it matters: cheap drones like the Shahed have become a persistent threat precisely because they slip past or overwhelm costly defenses, and a crowd-sourced microphone network could offer an affordable early-warning tool against weapons that are otherwise hard and expensive to track.