Review: Awesome and cheap add-on mobile phone strap

Since I was using my regular phone as a flight instrument while paragliding I needed a way to secure it to me and avoid losing it in flight - don't want to be raining cellphones into the ocean or cows below! I had previously been using velcro on the back of my phone case plus a small line through a hole drilled in the case as a lanyard, just in case of velcro failure and to allow me to detach the phone and use it for occasional in-flight photos without fear of losing it.

I no longer need my phone as a flight instrument so can dispense with the velcro but still wanted a lanyard to avoid dropping it if I took in-flight photos. Also, I'm increasingly nervous about someone trying to snatch the phone from me on the street or while commuting (it happens). Since my new phone has speakers on the ends and not front facing I decided to just tie the lanyard line around a narrow part of the case between a speaker hole and the USB power connector hole. It was a bit janky and not crazy secure since conceivably the TPU could wear or break under stress. Plus I had to use a really thin line to avoid getting in the way of cables.

So I started looking for a case that had a proper lanyard attachment built in and didn't find anything that great. There are some very rugged cases that include them, but not great for day to day use and I didn't want to have to use two cases. However, I did come across this product called WristGrip

https://wristgrip.com/

It is a pretty hefty braided wrist strap (20 colors and color combos available) that separates the braids out before entering the case. Since the braids are small and flat you can use any hole the case already has, the power hole is usually ideal. The braids are spread out and sealed onto a thin flat plastic sheet that can stick to your case.

At only $6.95 including shipping (some colors are on sale for only $5.95) it seemed like a good solution and I'm here to report I give it two thumbs up. Installation was super easy, just as described in this video:

I initially thought I'd have to remove the case to charge my phone but the strap fits through the power charging hole of my TPU case and the braids spread out are so flat I can still plug in the USB type C plug and charge with no issues. The attachment to the case is very firm. The only way you could lose the phone would be if someone deliberately pulled the case off it. That's just not going to happen in an accidental drop scenario.

In a robbery situation more likely someone won't even realize you have a strap around your wrist. They will grab your phone firmly to snatch it, yank your wrist in the process, and then find they need to let go to run off. Most street thieves are cowards who don't want to stick around to be confronted, identified, and possibly attacked by an angry pedestrian. They rely on stealth and surprise, not strong-arm tactics. If you want to give them your phone because they have a knife or gun - that's a different matter, but no strap is going to save you there!

If I was to fault Wrist Grip at all it is that the strap could be a tad longer so I could loop it through something and over the case to tie a hitch without removing the phone from the case. My case is 6.25" long - I think the strap would need to be 3" longer (total) to fit over the end of it. But since my case is flexible it's pretty easy to bend it in half to do that quickly once the case is off like this:

Overall I'm really satisfied with this and if you want a strap for your phone I would recommend it without hesitation.