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?
Calling other phones.
tf lol that’s like suggesting eating pizza with just your hand, instead of chopsticks like a proper civilized human
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.
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
I too miss my build in IR blaster from my S3.
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.
That’s true, but with the Ethernet connection you can tether to a router directly. When my Internet was down I was able to tether my entire home for the time I needed to get some updates finished to get my docker environment back up and running. I had no idea that was possible before that.
I had no idea! So you use the phone in tether mode and get it hooked up on a router ethernet port and it works like that? Did you have to change any settings on your router to make it work?
Nope it all just worked, it really surprised me honestly. I expected to need to do some weird tethering to a raspi or something to make it work but I didn’t need any of that. (Well, I had issues because it turned out lightning borked my router, but that was a different issue entirely.)
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.
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Yes! There’s so many cool apps on there! I wish the play store was similarly browsable.
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.
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 phone can do this too! It’s a fun flex, but super niche
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.
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
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?
What is requiring you two swipes and two taps?
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.
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!
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
SSH
