App stops texting while driving

A new app aims to stop your mobile phone from distracting you while you drive, at least by text messages.

The AT&T DriveMode app for iPhone turns on when it detects a speed of 25 km per hour and automatically responds to incoming SMS and MMS text messages so that the sender knows the text recipient is driving, PC Magazine reports.

For young drivers, if the app is turned off, it sends a warning message to their parents.

The app turns off when the phone stops moving and you can resume messaging.

"We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, email, or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy," David Greenfield, from the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction was quoted as saying.

"If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we're driving, a simple text can turn deadly."