How to make use of spare/old mobile phone

As technology emerges, we keep on buying new smartphones. But what to do with spare/old mobile phones. Most of you must be having old/spare mobile phones accumulating dust in the drawer.

Have you ever thought that how can we repurpose old smartphones and make use of it?

Let me walk you through different ways to put your old smartphone to good use.

1] BABY MONITOR

Parents come across tons of challenges while taking care of babies/kids. Especially, new parents are keen to do whatever they can to keep their baby safe.

Been a mother of 22 months boy, I can understand having a baby can take all your time and you will even find it difficult to have spare time for a shower or other household stuff.

Fortunately, technology is here to ease our lives. There are baby monitors available in the market but unfortunately, they are really very costly which can shake your budget.

Here is the solution, there are lots of free cool apps available that can turn any smartphone camera into an inexpensive baby monitor.

List of Some Apps that work as baby monitor:

1. Baby Monitor TEDDY
2. Dormi – baby monitor
3. WIFI baby monitor
4. Baby monitor 3G
5. Annie monitor
6. BabyCam and many more.

I personally use Baby Monitor TEDDY.

Baby Monitor TEDDY:

It is easy and reliable to use this app where you can watch live streaming of your baby and hear noise on your phone or tablet.

• Download and install this application on two devices.
• On launching the app, Screen shows two options as the baby unit and parent unit. Select a baby unit from the old phone and parent unit on their device. They pair automatically or just need to add a pairing number to set it up.
• Recommended to turn ON “Do not disturb” mode on the device which is placed next to sleeping baby.
• Works over wifi, LTE,3G.

For more details visit Baby monitor TEDDY.

2] Remote controller for TV,  AC, and IoT devices

Remote controller for TV: If your TV remote is lost or unable to find it then why not use your old mobile phone as a remote control for your TV. There are many universal remote control apps that can work for different models of TV.

For Samsung TV, there is an app called – “Smart Remote control for Samsung TVs” for Android mobile phones – Using this app, your old phone can be operated as a remote of your Samsung TV, just need to select the Samsung TV device and through the app, you can operate all the apps installed on the TV. (Need to connect the TV to the same wifi network as that of your phone)

Remote controller for AC: There are different apps available for operating smart devices from your phone such as Samsung has “Samsung Smartthings” whereas MI phone has ” Mi Remote controller – for TV, AC, and more( Which I have personally used).

If you have different devices such as Apple TV, Google Chrome cast, Roku, etc, there would be different remotes to operate them. It would be difficult remembering which remote works for which device and controlling all your devices from one remote rather is a great relief.

A simple solution is to download a remote control app, such as iRule, and then sync your phone to devices including your Apple TV, Roku, etc.

3] Turn your old phone into a wireless mouse

Your old device can become a backup when your wireless mouse dies or stop working. Just downloading an app Remote mouse, you can turn your old phone into a mouse for your computer in no time.

Steps to perform:

Navigate to http://www.remotemouse.net/.

1. Step 1: Download remote mouse on your old android, iPhone, or iPad.
2. Step 2: Install remote mouse server on your computer (mac, windows, or Linux)
3. Step3: Connect your mobile device and computer to the same wifi.

Make sure your computer Firewall should have permitted the Remote mouse app.

4] Turn your old Android phone into a Google Home

In today’s technology world, Google home is the most popular smart speaker that can be operated by your voice to interact with different services through Google Assistant.

You can repurpose your old Android phone as a Google Home smart speaker, which is simple and requires no app download.

 Conditions:

• Need Bluetooth speaker to pair it with your Android spare phone.
• The android phone should be updated with the latest OS, so you can have “OK Google”.
• Both the Bluetooth speaker and the Android phone should be always plugged in and on all the time.
• Go to Google browser -> setting -> Voice -> Voice match -> Hey Google (Teach your Assistant to recognize your voice)
• Go to Google browser -> setting -> Voice -> HANDS-FREE -> turn on Bluetooth audio recording

Thus, No need to spend money on Google Home.

5] Turn it into a kid-friendly learning tool

Nowadays because of the pandemic, the educational system got changed and everything has become virtual. Even small kids are also taking their classes virtually.

Your old device can be converted into a fun and educational gadget for your kid with a restricted profile using an app called “Google Family Link for Parents/Children and teens. If you have android 7.0 or higher( or Android versions 5.0 and 6.0) Google’s family link program can be downloaded which 

• Has the ability to set screen-time limits, parents can control the screen time and lock the device whenever it’s time to take a break. 
• Shows activity reports
• Parents can manage child apps as parent device will get a notification about the app that child wants to download
• Google Family Link will show parents the teacher recommended apps that parents can easily download on the child device.

For more details visit the Google Family website.