Comparison

MRI Guard vs Dowse

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MRI Guard

Features
Read full description

Your iPhone and Apple Watch are among your most valuable companions — photos, chats, cards, half your life. And of all places, their most dangerous opponent waits at your workplace: an MRI scanner's magnet is never off. One step too far, and the field can wipe or damage your device — or tear it from your hand. We all know to be careful — and still it happens: an emergency, stress, one moment of distraction — and a device that holds so much is done for. Made for everyone who regularly deals with MRI: radiographers and MRI technologists, radiologists, other physicians and nurses in hospitals and practices, service engineers and researchers — and patients with a smartphone in their pocket. With MRI Guard, your devices protect themselves: the app reads the magnetic field around them and sounds a loud, unmistakable alarm as it climbs toward the danger zone — your moment to stop, check, and step back. MADE BY AN MRI PHYSICIST MRI Guard comes from Dr. David Grodzki — MR physicist, inventor of numerous MR patents, and multi-award-winning innovator, including the German Future Award for Technology and Innovation (Deutscher Zukunftspreis), presented by the German President. He builds the app as a hobby, outside his work at Siemens Healthineers — a private project, independent of his employer — and is deliberately careful about what it claims. WHAT IT DOES • Live magnetic-field reading with a clear colour scale (green → red) • Adjustable alarm threshold — default 3 mT, the EU action level for attraction and projectile risk (Directive 2013/35/EU); adjustable from 0.1 to 5 mT • Loud alarm and vibration when the field crosses your threshold — as a critical alert, through Silent and Focus • Keeps monitoring in the background, even with the screen locked • Smart Alarm against false alarms — on by default • Choose your units: microtesla (µT), millitesla (mT) or gauss (G) • Pauses itself while charging (induction charging creates fields of its own) and resumes right after • Warns you when iOS Low Power Mode could delay monitoring • Share places, alarm and notification settings with colleagues — by link or QR code • 10 languages STARTS BY ITSELF AT YOUR WORKPLACE (iPhone) Save your workplace once and MRI Guard arms itself the moment you arrive — hands-free, with a notification confirming it — and stops when you leave. Prefer to decide yourself? Switch to an arrival reminder and start with one tap instead. For reliable detection, allow 'Always' location with Precise Location on and keep Wi-Fi enabled. Shortcuts and Siri are supported too. APPLE WATCH: YOUR SHIFT AS A WORKOUT Record your shift as a workout: the watch shows heart rate, distance and energy live and saves the shift to Apple Health as a Walking workout; your rings fill. Summary and history on the iPhone add steps, stand time, daylight and sound level. During the shift the watch also alarms on your wrist when the magnetic field rises. Leave the workplace and the watch asks. Health data stays on your device. FREE & FULL VERSION Measuring and the live display are free forever. The alarm, automations, Apple Watch and Shortcuts are part of the full version: try everything free for 3 days, then one single purchase — no subscription. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-in. Your saved locations stay on your device — the app never uploads them; they only leave it if you share them yourself. The app can share anonymous, aggregate usage statistics to help improve it — you can turn that off anytime in Settings. IMPORTANT — PLEASE READ MRI Guard is an awareness aid, not a certified safety device or medical instrument. The magnetic sensor in a phone or watch is uncalibrated and saturates at a few millitesla, so it cannot measure strong fields accurately and may not react in every situation. Never rely on it for safety-critical decisions. Always follow your site's MR safety rules and use approved measuring equipment. You are responsible for your own safety and your devices.

About

Dowse

Detect hidden cameras and trackers in your surroundings using your phone's sensors. It scans Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, guides you through a physical inspection, and helps locate lost Bluetooth items. The app also alerts you to persistent unknown trackers.

Highlights
  • Wi-Fi device scanning
  • Bluetooth tracker detection
  • Guided physical inspection
  • Lens glint scanner
  • Infrared scope
  • Lost Bluetooth item finder
  • Persistent tracker alerts
Features
Read full description

Someone found a camera in an Airbnb once, and the whole internet remembers. You still have to sleep somewhere tonight. Dowse checks a room in one walk. You go from place to place while the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth checks run underneath, and the room seals into one report you can keep or share. THE WALK Eight places cameras actually hide, one at a time: the smoke detector, the alarm clock, the USB charger charging nothing, the air vent, the shelf, the bathroom, the TV and the mirror. At each one, hold to look. Dowse strobes your flashlight and watches for the tiny glint a lens sends back, with night vision built in for cameras that light the room in infrared. If something flashes back, its photo stays in your report. If it turns out to be a screw, tap It was nothing. THE WI-FI AND BLUETOOTH While you walk, Dowse knocks on the room's Wi-Fi address by address and flags anything that behaves like a camera, quoting the device's own words when it gives any. Bluetooth listens for 20 seconds for trackers and gadgets that have no business in a rented bedroom. PULL THE PLUG Found a camera-like device on the Wi-Fi but can't see it? Unplug things in the room one at a time. Your phone buzzes the moment it drops off the network, so you know which object it was. THE HONEST PART Every room also says what it couldn't check. A camera that records to a memory card and never joins a network is invisible to every phone app, ours included, which is why the eight places exist. If Bluetooth is off or you're on mobile data, Dowse tells you before you start, and a room that couldn't check anything doesn't use up your free check. FIND YOUR LOST STUFF Earbuds under the couch again. Pick the device and walk. The number climbs as you get closer and the Geiger clicks speed up. 60... 74... 91. There they are. Tap Found it. Works with anything that speaks Bluetooth. WATCHING YOUR BACK Dowse notices when the same unknown tracker keeps turning up around you in different places, and stays silent otherwise. No alerts about your neighbor's speaker. Your first room is free. After that, Dowse needs an active subscription. TERMS: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

MRI Guard4 screens
Dowse4 screens

Verdict

The call

MRI Guard and Dowse are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MRI Guard sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Dowse sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
MRI Guard versus Dowse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMRI GuardDowse
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDavid GrodzkiRedjan Hysa

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MRI Guard

One-time1
  • MRI Guard Full Version$12.99
3 purchases

Dowse

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Yearly$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$39.99

Questions

Is MRI Guard free?
MRI Guard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Dowse free?
Dowse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MRI Guard or Dowse have ads?
Neither MRI Guard nor Dowse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MRI Guard or Dowse?
MRI Guard ships an update every 4 days, and Dowse every 4 days. Most recently, MRI Guard was updated on October 31, 2026 and Dowse on October 24, 2026.

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