diff --git a/iris/android-app/src/app_log.rs b/iris/android-app/src/app_log.rs
index 8c997fc..2b83147 100644
--- a/iris/android-app/src/app_log.rs
+++ b/iris/android-app/src/app_log.rs
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ pub fn install(max_level: log::LevelFilter) {
         // The line goes through whatever logger did win.
         log::warn!("iris app log: a logger was already installed, so there is no ring");
     }
+    install_panic_hook();
 }
 
 /// The process's ring -- what `Copy report` appends, what the diagnostics
@@ -63,3 +64,61 @@ pub fn diagnostics_line() -> String {
     };
     format!("{}\n{where_to_read}", ring().summary())
 }
+
+/// Where the panic hook leaves its one line, under the app's private
+/// directory. Read back and dropped by [`set_crash_dir`] on the next
+/// start.
+const CRASH_FILE: &str = "last-panic.txt";
+
+static CRASH_PATH: std::sync::OnceLock<std::path::PathBuf> = std::sync::OnceLock::new();
+
+/// Installs a `log`-level panic hook, so a panic's message and location
+/// reach the ring and `logcat` rather than only the tombstone.
+///
+/// **Why this is needed at all**: these builds are `panic = "abort"`
+/// (`Cargo.toml`), and the default hook writes to `stderr` plus
+/// `android_set_abort_message` -- the crash report. Iris runs these on a
+/// phone with no `adb`, so the crash report is exactly the surface she
+/// cannot read, and an `assert!` that fired said nothing anywhere she
+/// could see it. Routing it through `log::error!` puts it in front of
+/// `android_logger` *and* in the ring `devlog`'s provider hands to Dev
+/// Updater.
+///
+/// The ring is memory only, so after an abort the process that holds it
+/// is gone -- hence the file half. [`set_crash_dir`] replays it.
+fn install_panic_hook() {
+    let previous = std::panic::take_hook();
+    std::panic::set_hook(Box::new(move |info| {
+        let where_at = match info.location() {
+            Some(at) => format!("{}:{}:{}", at.file(), at.line(), at.column()),
+            None => "an unknown location".to_string(),
+        };
+        // `info`'s own `Display` repeats the location and a newline;
+        // the payload alone keeps this to the one line the ring wants.
+        let message = info.payload_as_str().unwrap_or("Box<dyn Any>");
+        let line = format!("iris panic at {where_at}: {message}");
+        log::error!("{line}");
+        if let Some(path) = CRASH_PATH.get() {
+            // Best effort by design: a panic is already the failure, and
+            // failing to record it must not become a second one.
+            let _ = std::fs::write(path, &line);
+        }
+        previous(info);
+    }));
+}
+
+/// Tells the panic hook where to leave its line, and replays the line a
+/// previous run left there into the ring before deleting it.
+///
+/// Called from `nativeSetFilesDir`, which is the first moment the app's
+/// private directory is known. The replay is at `error` level and says
+/// it is from the previous run, so a crash loop shows the reason it is
+/// looping in the Runtime tab of the run that is still up.
+pub fn set_crash_dir(dir: &std::path::Path) {
+    let path = dir.join(CRASH_FILE);
+    if let Ok(previous) = std::fs::read_to_string(&path) {
+        log::error!("iris app log: the previous run died -- {}", previous.trim());
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&path);
+    }
+    let _ = CRASH_PATH.set(path);
+}
diff --git a/iris/android-app/src/lib.rs b/iris/android-app/src/lib.rs
index 8ed320a..5bdacd6 100644
--- a/iris/android-app/src/lib.rs
+++ b/iris/android-app/src/lib.rs
@@ -180,7 +180,10 @@ pub extern "system" fn Java_dev_iris_android_demo_MainActivity_nativeSetFilesDir
         return;
     };
     #[cfg(feature = "transcript-screen")]
-    enrollment::set_files_dir(std::path::PathBuf::from(&dir));
+    {
+        app_log::set_crash_dir(std::path::Path::new(&dir));
+        enrollment::set_files_dir(std::path::PathBuf::from(&dir));
+    }
     log::debug!("iris app: files directory is {dir}");
 }