That miniature computer you have in your pocket or purse? It may just save your life. Yep, your smartphone may just be the perfect piece of short term emergency survival  gear. And you thought your phone was just for texting, checking e-mail and playing Walking Dead: The Game. Actually, when you battle imaginary zombies on your mobile phone, you are preparing yourself for surviving an apocalypse full of real-life zombies or disastrous eventualities.

Even cell phones that do not bear the “smart” moniker (a smartphone is a cellular phone with Internet access and the ability to run downloaded applications) can prove extremely useful when The End Times finally get here. While some “end of the world as we know it” scenarios make your cell phone worthless because the electronics and communications grids are wiped out, that may not be the case. And as an emergency communications device, both sending and receiving, there is nothing better than the smartphone.

Think about it. Any emergency or disaster situation probably requires that you contact someone immediately. Your cell phone is perfect for that. What if you find yourself in a “what happened” situation? Power up your phone and surf the web for an answer. If you are trapped somewhere, as long as you have a signal you can find out how to escape. Need to start a fire but never paid attention to all of those National Geographic Doomsday Prepper episodes you watched? Type “how to make fire” into YouTube on your smartphone’s browser. A recent such search returned 32,000,000 results.

You can also make fire with your cell phone battery, even if your phone was broken when you were thrown to the ground during the greatest earthquake of all time which caused the disaster situation you currently find yourself in. Here is a video demonstration by an experienced survivalist:

Your Phone Can Save You … Even With No Cell Service

If planning in advance of emergency, why not download any of the hundreds of emergency and survival apps that are designed to save your life? They will be there right on your phone when you need them. Forward thinking  app developers have made many of these possibly life-saving applications work on your phone even if there is no cellular service. Once you download them, they are on your phone’s hard drive and usable as long as you have battery power.

You can also use the camera on your phone to make a picture and video record of your situation, and then send critical and relevant information to emergency responders or health professionals. You probably already know that you should have an emergency contact listed in your phone’s contact list under ICE (in case of emergency). That is one way that your phone can save your life in a disastrous survival situation, even if you are unconscious.

There is virtually no end to the ways that your cell phone can help you in a short term, and possibly even long-term, disaster survival scenario. Keep a spare battery fully charged and on hand at all times. Make sure your vehicle, home and workplace have their own dedicated phone chargers. Download a flashlight app and other important survival applications, and your mobile phone might just do more important things for you than feed your Candy Crush addiction.