What uses of a smartphone do you think most people miss out on?
What uses of a smartphone do you think most people miss out on?
By far my most favorite use is as a notepad that I always have with me. I use a custom keyboard to make typing faster and more accurate.
Anything y'all like to do with your phones that you feel like most people miss out on?
USB OTG on android phones is severely underrated.
- I can plug in a USB drive and transfer files around, I've used this to manage my retro handheld SD cards before.
- You can tether your hotspot over Ethernet to your computer with an Ethernet adapter.
- You can plug Ethernet into your phone to get faster connections.
- You can plug a mouse into your phone and get a cursor on screen. Not super useful tbh, but kinda cool.
- You can use your phone as an external webcam for your computer.
- It's a bit more annoying than it used to be but you can use your phone as a universal IR remote with a small adapter and free apps (I miss my built in IR blaster from my S3).
- I haven't used it much, but I can plug in a RTL-SDR dongle and get aerial TV on my phone, or a radio spectrum analyzer. I used it to discover that my garage remote is about to die and that's why my car's garage button won't learn the signal.
- USB (or Bluetooth) game controllers just work.
Definitely a relatively niche usecase but I have SSH clients, terminal apps, RDP remote access clients, and other networking tools as apps on my phone for quickly messing with things. Very helpful to not need to bring out the PC when I'm fixing my network.
The ability to VPN into my home network to access my NAS. Honestly being able to access my NAS in general is already great for backups or just so I don't have to think about what's physically on my phone.
With a cheap Bluetooth device I can connect to my car's diagnostic port (ODBII) and check engine codes. No more trips to the mechanic just to get it diagnosed.
WiFi direct cameras are a great addon too. I have a wifi endoscope (camera on a long bendy stick) for inspecting inside walls and my phone works as a screen for it.
Using a mouse is great for some games like OpenTTD!
When my pixel 5a decided to stop using the screen, I was able to do a full phone backup using the OTG to plug in a keyboard. Ridiculous but was a fun troubleshooting moment
Using a mouse is invaluable if the screen shatters and the touch panel stops working but you still need to get data off it.
I too miss my build in IR blaster from my S3.
For anyone on iOS, you can do most of this there too. On older iPhones you need a lightning to USB-A adapter you can get on AliExpress for like $3, but on USB-C iPhones it works directly.
The Files app has become like a full file manager, with local storage, unzipping, archiving, SMB connections, as well as most cloud storage services connect to it. Download Keka from the App Store and you can even unpack 7z, ISOs, everything you can do on a desktop.
You don't need an ethernet adapter to use your phone as a cabled hotspot for a computer. Just a regular usb cabe works just fine, I've done it before when our home internet was down.
I got a waterproof case, so I use mine as a coaster.
Mine is already water resistant up to a couple feet. No case needed for a coaster.
I've been getting into having a pdf of the various manuals for things around the house on my phone. I recently consulted the manuals for my fridge, a new dehumidifier and the lawn mower and it was pretty awesome not having to find and dig out a paper booklet each time. My phone is on me all the time plus I can get rid of the paper copies.
It would be tempting to have a QR code or nfc tag to stick on appliances that goes direct to a manual on a self hosted service. Would be nice so it's always easy to get to and specific to the device.
Been doing this too! Embarrassingly I still need to refer to my washing machine manual occassionally.
It's a really useful habit!
In a similar vein, I've also got a receipt scanner app - to make sure I've got 'em saved if I need to return or service something.
Haven't needed it in a while, but a wifi analyzer to identify which band(s) are least crowded
Back when we worked it, the app saved so much time and helped explain so much.
Same. It's actually the reason I chose Android over IOS way way back in the day.
Same here. Now my router/AP does it automatically.
I moved my PC to a corner of my house without an Ethernet jack, I didn't want to drill any holes, pull any cables, dug out an old smartphone, connected with a micro USB (!) cable, enabled USB tethering, connected the phone via WiFi and had a nice Internet connection
nice, but usb tethering has always been slower than ethernet in my experience
I run a real linux on my phone, so I can use it for anything I can use my laptop/desktop/unix for. I think what people forget is that phones are ultimately just computers with a WWAN radio, and the restrictive nature of Android and especially iOS obfuscate that.
postmarketos or do you run it as a vm?
postmarketOS, native, on pinephone. There's a few mobile devices these days that can run mobile Linux.
I use a Galaxy Ultra. currently an S22u previously a Note 9.
I use the stylus everyday. I tired a phone.sans atykus (Pixel Pro) for a month and got rid of it. The sylus is so handy
I have gone ----> Note 8, Note 9, S22u.
I draw work sketches all the time eg just this morning my parter sent me a photo of her mother's toilet and asked me how to fix it. I typed a long set of instructions, she said huh... And can you draw me a sketch, stylus out and I did and she said now she understands and fixed it herself.
Someone givea me some info, stylus out, tap the screen and start writing eg phone number, address etc. No unlocking necessary. I have used the stylus as a camera remote on the phone but not often.
The styus makes the phone so useful it still beguiles me how peoplendo without. I use a phone and desktop.
This is definitely a huge one in my experience as well. Speech isn't great at communicating visual detail. It's amazing how the moment you start drawing you can just see it click in the other person's mind.
I've never had a phone with a stylus before, but you make a good case for it!
I loved having a Note 2 ages ago. But since then, the styluses that are paired with phones seem so awfully plastic and cheap. I use a pretty standard phone nowadays, but I'm keeping my eyes open for a phone with a good high quality stylus that has its resting place in a niche in the phone itself. Any suggestions?
I previously had an LG Stylo and now I have a Motorola G stylus. I love both of them. The stylus is kind of thin but it's stored in the phone. I use the notepad pretty frequently so having a phone with a stylus is a must have for me.
An excuse not to interact with people.
"Sorry, my notifications were off while I was busy yesterday and didn't have a chance to check it".You can use it as a webcam if you suddenly need to work from home and there's a shortage of webcams.
Originally I had to install an app for that, but it shows up as a standard USB option on my Pixel now.
I recently used my phone to wirelessly charge someone else's phone that was about to die. Pretty useful feature in the moment. I only used that feature only that one time in the 2 years I've had the phone but it's nice to know that is an option.
My phone can do this too! It's a fun flex, but super niche
I did this when out with a friend the other night. It was a neat party trick so they could stay in touch with their sister. First time I've used it in years of having the phone.
My other half has new Ultra, I have an older Ultra model. Stuff i find invaluable that she hasn't used once:
- S Pen
- Modes & Routines
- Secure folder
- DeX (to a lesser degree than the above)
I try to use my phone as a Swiss army knife. Stuff I rely on that most normal users likely dont realise their phone can do:
- Using Kodi the phone becomes fully fledged mobile media player. Great for vacations in case of poor weather (in conjunction with HDMI lead, controller/wireless keyboard)
- OsmAnd navigation has an offline Wikipedia plugin. I set up a shortcut in it so i can display/hide all wiki entries nearby. Brilliant when on vacation
- All my main apps will work offline in case of data outage: navigation, notes, password manager, books, music, podcasts, media etc etc
- Password manager has more uses than simply handling passwords
- Playing video sites in the background ...with a timer if desired
- Browser with uBlock "etc"
- Manipulation of .pdf files
- A good launcher. Mine is always set up the same regardless of device - I can access any app within 2 swipes & 2 taps
- A good car dock
- Most don't realise that a simple DNS entry can help reduce the amount of ads they see
- All manner of nerdy tech shit to interact with stuff on my network. No normal human needs to know that this usage factor exists
And most importantly ...using the camera in landscape so images/video can be viewed properly on a TV or monitor. And not using digital zoom in the dark to record an entire concert from row Q
What is requiring you two swipes and two taps?
Cool list! I've taken to listening to music and videos with a sleep timer as well.
I wonder, what unusual things are you using a password manager for? Inputting common address data or something?
With bitwarden you can store and securely share files, store information for family members, card details, memos, etc
It's probably a tie between wikipedia and flashlight.
The phone flashlight is absurdly useful to me. I think I end up using it almost every single day.
Another use that comes to mind is google lens. Really easy and quick translation, and it helps me figure out what various random items are called - thrifting finds or plants, for example.
If the phone flashlight is so useful, try carrying a legit flashlight for a while. They're loads better. I'd suggest one of the smaller offerings from rovyvon. Any of them are great, but I like the ones with two lenses and a rechargeable plus AAA battery compartment. It's the size of a car key fob, lasts a long time, charges over USB c, and goes from super dim to insanely bright.
I've started using that recently and it is very handy.
I literally keep Google lens open on my hand at the Japanese supermarket. So fucking helpful in the soy sauce aisle and in general. I actually know what I'm buying!
You can use most modern phones as a spirit level with the right app! It's really useful when doing projects around the house, not having to run around to find a real one. Quite accurate, too!
I used my phone a lot to stream games from my PC to other rooms. Connect a Gamepad and Hdmi cable, and you can play all games from your library. Lag is minimal, but I haven't tried it for competitive games.
how? what did you set up for that?
On PC popular options are Steam Remote Play and Moonlight.
for Xbox it's built into the Xbox app, Greenlight is a good alternative on PC
for PS4/5 there's the PS Remote Play app, but a lot of people prefer the PSPlay app on Android and Chiaki on PC for their improved functionality.
As for getting it on the TV any simple USBC->HDMI adapter will work.
What custom keyboard do you use, and which layout?
I use Typewise, with its default hexagonal layout that's supposedly based on the frequency of letters in English. I've gotten alright with it - ~60 WPM on Monkeytype, which is enough that it doesn't feel clunky to use it. And it's quite fun to practice, too!
While I'm pretty sure it's quite possible to write faster with more predictive keyboards, I really appreciate the precision this one allows. Especially since I'm bilingual, which leads to autocorrect and swype getting quite confused sometimes.
I'm still in the market for a better keyboard app. Another interesting one I've tried was MessagEase. It looks really cool and arcane to use, but I found it to be slower in spite of me putting more effort into mastering it.
Oh dang, that's $32 AUD! Bit out of my price range!
I use my smartphone to keep my book open when reading at a table. It does a pretty good job there.
Don't limit yourself to technical uses.
SSH
I can do full fledged software development complete with fully desktop-equivalent Neovim on my phone.
That said, it's really not a pleasant experience. The CPU in my phone is pretty fast all things considered, but it still takes several times longer to compile a project than my laptop does; having this little screen real estate sucks; and since Termux doesn't enable predictive text on the onscreen keyboard (and predictive text is worse than useless when writing code anyway), the best I can hope for productivity wise is a keyboard like Hacker's Keyboard or Unexpected Keyboard that at least has functions like Esc built in. When I have a Bluetooth keyboard, I'm about half as productive as I am on a laptop. When I don't, writing the same program takes ten times as long. But it does have all the same features my desktop setup does, and it is usable in a pinch.
I recently started to use my phone to monitor the conditions of my plant collection with a couple of Sensorpush devices. They report temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and vapor pressure once a minute via Bluetooth, and I get a notification if conditions deviate from what I set. It has been very helpful at dialing in things in and responding to problems.
As a VPN client, I dont mean for a connection to a VPN service to annoamyse my traffic, but for my own self hosted VPN so I can call home and access stuff on my network. Comes in handy for stuff like my password manager where I dont like the idea of exposing it to the internet but still need access when im out and about.
My favorite use for my phone was wabbitemu, which was a perfect emulator for the ti86 calculator I've used almost daily since 1998. Apparently my new phone uses a new architecture and the app doesn't work, so that's rather disappointing.
Plugging headphones into a jack port and taking the back of to replace battery.
Those was kind of jokey answers, i really like using mine as a back up for documents via syncthing to view when im out if i need it. Much prefer this than uploading to cloud storage. I also use syncthing to have my save states for emulators sync from my phone to pc so i can contiune where i left off on the other device
Installing postmarketOS on it to turn it into a full fledged pocket PC. It now runs all your favorite Linux-compatible desktop applications except for those that don't have ARM64 versions, and even then emulation layers can fix this. It's not 100% as I haven't been able to get Steam working (it starts but errors out before the login screen) though I have seen some people have success on other distros so maybe it's a pmOS/Alpine/musl specific issue even though I was using distrobox with Debian to actually run it.
Is there a single phone made in the last ten years that will run postmarketOS at all?
The best one right now is the OnePlus 6/6T, which has a relatively modern SoC.
I use mine with Microsoft Lens (I know, but one of their best products that doesn't spy on you) as a document scanner and then sync it to my document server paperless-ngx.
It can angle correct, color correct, and has good filters for b&w and greyscale that often make it look like a real document scanner if your phone has a decent camera.
Much better than drive or any of the open source options to be honest, sadly....
May I recommend OSS Document Scanner + Syncthing? Both apps are FOSS and it looks to me like that they might be able to replace what Microsoft Lens does for you with the advantage that you are free of Microsoft software.
Wdym "that doesn't spy on you"?
It doesn't request location access, it doesn't request contact or phone access, it doesn't require you to sign into a microsoft account, it doesn't constantly send data back home, etc... It only requests file permission and camera permission while you are using the app. A lot of apps harvest your data, and the entire Windows OS is built around harvesting your data and spying on your every click. This app doesn't seem to do that as far as anyone can discern.
iOS has a built in document scanner, which does all of that as well. Has never let me down.
Yeah, I have Simplenote on my devices so that my plain text notes are always synced. Movies and TV shows we intend to watch, stuff to get at the store, unlock codes for lockers in the mail room of our building, stuff to discuss with my therapist, records I wanna find and buy, etc. I was at a show last night (Santigold and she kicked ass) and was jotting reminders for myself between songs. Having an instant notes repository is awesome.
Samsung DEX.
If you have a phone with a headphone jack, you have a portable radio... without the antenna. But just plug in headphones and you're good to go.
Could you have made the advertisement just a bit more obvious, maybe?
Believe it or not, not every corner of the internet has been taken over by astroturfing as of yet!
I'm genuinely just sharing a cool keyboard app that has made my use-case far more fun for me. Another such app I used for a while was MessagEase, but unfortunately they went subscription-based (and also it was slower, even after a huge amount of practice).