10 Android options I taught my dad and mom to make use of, and you need to too

I used to be displaying my dad a few Android options on his telephone lately, and never for the primary time. You may need had this revelation already, however I noticed there’s a lot we do unthinkingly on our units which may nonetheless be alien to the generations above us. I’m not precisely younger myself as a millennial, however I’ve grown up within the digital age, which implies I’ve picked up new methods as they’ve come on the scene. Writing about them for a dwelling helps quite a bit, too.

However for my dad and mom, these little Android options appear to be magic at instances, and a few of them can really be game-changers. I’ve needed to information them by means of a few the ideas greater than as soon as, however they’ve adopted a lot of them since. They’ve even impressed their buddies with their newfound trendy wizardry now and again.

Listed here are essentially the most helpful Android options I taught my dad and mom to make use of. A few of them is perhaps price displaying yours, too.

Okay, technically that’s two issues, however you may see what I’m getting at. Combining the 2 is utilizing your Android telephone to pay for stuff, and that’s what issues.

I hardly carry a pockets today as a result of I can faucet my telephone just about in all places. Just lately, I bought my dad arrange with Google Pockets, and I wasn’t positive how it might go. He had the same old questions on the way it works, whether or not it’s safe, and so forth.

Quick-forward just a few weeks, and he’s really utilizing it on the grocery store and eating places. He nonetheless retains a minimum of one card on him “simply in case,” however he’s surprisingly enthusiastic every time somebody asks him about it. If we will get our people to make use of Google Pockets frequently, it’s one much less factor for them to recollect to seize as they go away the home, and that may be fairly a giant deal as they get on in years.

This was a fast win. I confirmed my dad and mom how they might cease their telephones from buzzing late at night time or whereas attempting to chill out. With a single faucet within the Fast Settings panel, they will now use Do Not Disturb to silence notifications and calls.

It doesn’t take so much to wake them up, and in contrast to me, they’ll in all probability assume most telephone noises are vital. This stops the WhatsApp teams chiming away at bedtime or the rip-off calls sending them working in from the backyard.

I confirmed them the way to make exceptions, after all, so if a member of the family or a selection different contact calls, it comes by means of. However in any other case, the telephone stays quiet. I haven’t bothered educating them Modes and Routines but — you don’t want Work Mode a lot once you’re retired.

Sending information has sometimes been a headache for my dad and mom, often involving an unwieldy electronic mail attachment. Fast Share takes all of the ache out of it. It’s constructed into Android, and with simply a few faucets within the share menu, they will now ship movies, paperwork, or no matter else straight to a different close by system.

For them, it’s lastly a simple technique to swap photos with buddies or seize one thing from me without having a step-by-step tutorial. Watching a photograph simply seem on their display nonetheless appears like a powerful little trick.

This can be a traditional hidden shortcut that even a few of my buddies have by no means picked up on, however when you study it, you by no means look again. On most Android telephones, a fast double-press of the facility button immediately opens the digital camera, even from the lock display.

I confirmed my dad and mom this throughout a household vacation, and it caught. As an alternative of fumbling by means of the unlock course of, they might launch the digital camera in a second. I additionally identified that the quantity buttons work as a shutter, which solved their behavior of awkwardly holding the telephone in a single hand and poking on the display with the opposite. By the latter phases of the journey, my dad was whipping out the digital camera like an murderer’s blade.

This one took a little bit of establishing and was undoubtedly the one which freaked my mother out essentially the most. Despite the fact that it was only some years in the past, it’s simple to neglect how mind-blowing it was after we first talked to an LLM. If we felt like that as techy sorts, you may think about what it does to a boomer.

I needed to present my dad and mom the alternative ways to activate Gemini and encourage them to start out a chat, however they might shortly noticed how helpful it could possibly be. For me, one of the simplest ways to get them on board was to indicate them one thing I’d discovered it genuinely helpful for. I as soon as informed Gemini what little produce was in my fridge, and it gave me an ideal recipe. I bought my mother to ask the app the identical factor, and she or he was greater than slightly impressed.

I’ll be trustworthy, they nonetheless default to Googling issues more often than not, however I’m slowly working them over to the wonders of AI.

This one’s only for enjoyable, however I ship GIFs and stickers within the household chat on a regular basis, so I believed it might be good for them to know the way to reciprocate. I confirmed my dad and mom the way to deliver up GIFs in Gboard, and out of the blue, that they had an countless provide of foolish animations to drop into chats.

They wasted no time working towards, and whereas they may not have the complete grasp of meme tradition but, it’s undoubtedly modified the household chat. It’s not essentially the most important of Android options, and I sometimes remorse educating them, nevertheless it’s a fast technique to give your dad and mom the sensation they’re speaking in your stage.

I do know you is perhaps studying this and pondering I’m repeatedly stating the plain, however that’s the purpose. It usually doesn’t matter if an icon like GIF is correct in entrance of their faces — some older folks might both be slightly nervous or simply incurious about exploring their system. That doesn’t imply they received’t recognize the additional information as soon as they’ve it.

Plenty of older folks both don’t notice they’ve Google Lens on their telephones, or they’ve heard of it however don’t understand how simple it’s to make use of. After I confirmed my dad, I opened Google, tapped the little digital camera icon within the search bar, and pointed it at a flower in his beloved backyard. Inside a second, it popped up with the precise title of the plant.

I additionally confirmed him Circle to Search alone telephone. He thought that was a good tip as properly, however he was a lot keener on Lens. I’m guessing that’s as a result of the generations earlier than ours stare at their telephones a lot much less, however are simply as inquisitive about what one thing within the IRL world is perhaps.

Since I don’t stay close to my dad and mom, I get a name every so often asking for tech assist. As an alternative of attempting to explain an answer verbally each time, I confirmed them the way to use display sharing in Google Meet. Throughout a name, they now know to simply faucet the share button within the three-dots menu, and I can see precisely what’s on their display.

In actuality, I often find yourself sharing my display as a substitute to stroll them by means of a setting or two, however now they know the way to flip it round in the event that they’re nonetheless caught. It’s not one of many Android options they use usually, however once they do, it makes troubleshooting a lot faster.

My people already know the way to open Google Maps and lookup locations. They will even get and observe instructions on the app, however that’s about so far as they’ve gone with it. You’ll understand how far more the app can do, and two options particularly had been notably price educating to my dad and mom.

The primary is offline maps. They’re eager ramblers, so I confirmed them the way to obtain the realm round their strolling spots that don’t at all times have the most effective sign. The second is stay location sharing, which implies they will ship me a hyperlink so I can see in the event that they’re on observe. That’s been helpful when assembly up, but in addition reassuring once they’re driving someplace new.

That is the one one of many Android options on this record that I don’t use myself, nevertheless it’s been surprisingly helpful for my dad, whose listening to isn’t fairly what it was once. Reside Captions robotically places subtitles on no matter’s enjoying on the telephone, be it a YouTube video or a telephone name. It additionally all works on-device, so it’s not gobbling knowledge.

I confirmed him the way to flip it on by urgent the quantity button and tapping the little caption icon that seems. As soon as enabled, a small field pops up on the display with real-time textual content of no matter’s being mentioned. It’s not excellent, nevertheless it’s fast, correct sufficient, and has made watching movies or following calls so much simpler for him.