Olidtech.com – You may replace your smartphone with the new one since the smartphone development is truly fast. Every year, both android and iOS model phones are launched with their improved features. On top of that, you may think to sell your phone or just throw it out of the windows. Before you do that to your old smartphone, it can be useful in certain ways. There are creative ideas for reusing old smartphones such as serving as security cams, or GPS trackers for your children. We summarize the ideas that you can give second chance to your old smartphone with the beneficial features.
The following way how to reuse old smartphones creatively:
- Turn your old smartphone into the music player
- Convert it as a mini webcam for zoom meeting
- Remote control with a smartphone
- Using old smartphones as a security cam
- Store your old memory within your smartphone
- Old smartphones work as a universal mouse
- Reuse your old smartphone into a mini Gameboy
- Convert smartphones into Google smart home
- Mini assistant on your car
- Serve as a slide photo frame in your living room
- Using it as tracker devices and child monitor
- Experience a VR with an old smartphone
- Keep it as a backup data with hotspot function
- Functionalize compact camera looks like GoPro
- Using old smartphones as a digital calendar
- Give your support to research experiments
Turn Your Old Smartphone Into The Music Player
If you have a new smartphone but the music library is on your old one. You can reuse your old smartphone as your dedicated music player instead. Moreover, you can erase all unused data on your old device and creatively insert more local songs you have into that one. It could save up more space on your new smartphone without losing your groove time. Furthermore, it also could serve as a podcast for speakers. So you also save more sources and energy by using an old smartphone as a music player. To begin with, older phone models have low storage. That is why we selectively choose the best music player on android that uses less space on the storage with a powerful function. You can check our article about the best music player for android in 2022.
Convert It Into a Mini Webcam For Zoom Meeting
Generally, a dedicated webcam on your laptop doesn’t have a better resolution for capturing a picture or using it for Zoom Meeting. Moreover, any laptop manufacturer also does not pay attention to webcam build quality. Some people may suggest purchasing an additional webcam to upgrade the video quality. However, you could bring the idea to convert your old smartphone into a webcam.
Is that possible to create a webcam with that device? Yes, with some simple steps and testing, you can reuse an old smartphone as a webcam for zoom meetings. Download a certain app to connect the phone with your laptop and link it to your zoom app. Fortunately, we also create quick tips articles on how to turn your smartphone into a webcam. Check it out to escalate your video quality with a smartphone camera.
Remote Control With a Smartphone
Having devices that are controlled with an IR remote is commonly on an older TV, Radio, or speaker. It’s kinda nice to have these relic devices that still worked. However, the downside is the remotes are irreplaceable, not for their rarity, but because the tech is out to date and hardly find a match remote control with the same devices. If you have an old device that contains an IR blast feature, you could serve it as a substitute remote control. You can download the app and adjust the frequency depending on your TV model. Any device with IR can be controlled by your old smartphone in this way, or use your creativity to extend the uses as the main control of the Arduino platform.
Protect Your House By Using Old Smartphones As a Security Cam
An actual security cam could cost more than hundreds of bucks with a single cam. Moreover, addition such as computers, storage, and cable could inflate the cost. So, if you have an old device with a working camera, you can reuse an old smartphone into a security cam. It could protect your home without any additional cost.
To make a DIY security cam, you need an app that connects your camera to your smartphone or PC. There are numerous camera apps that support this feature. We suggest using IP Webcam lite on the first try since it doesn’t contain ads, and the pro version unlocks the full feature. The second one is mounting your camera in a hidden place. Use your creativity to place and set your security cam with a wide-angle screen. Place it on the eye door as a hole camera or disguise it on a photo frame is an idea to capture any moment in your house. The old smartphone can be useful in this tip while controlling your house with ease.
Store Your Old Memory Within Your Old Smartphone
The old smartphone also could store up your memory in the past like classical music, pictures with your dearest one, retro offline mini-games in APK files, and many more. You can keep it as is and save it for reminiscing the old times. However, the main problem is the rusty battery life that could damage your phone over time.
Regularly use your old phone until it’s running out of power and safely store it in a waterproof container it is good to keep the phone in condition. Or you can use it as a storage station while traveling to tourist attractions. Generally, the old model phones have a dedicated slot for external memory. So, use it to extend the storage capacity. Be mindful to check their limit storage since overcapacity storage could slow down the phone.
Could an Old Smartphone Work As a Universal Mouse?
Yes, It does, and more importantly, it also depend on your old phone’s capability. Imagine you have a tight schedule with a rotating workplace and your mouse are dead. Turning your old smartphone into a universal mouse could save your time. Moreover, if the smartphone has both wireless and IR blast features, your phone could use as an emergency wireless mouse. Some apps are capable to use Bluetooth as the main connector and IR to track the device’s location. So, before you waste your old device, bring their second chance with these creative ideas.
Turn Your Old Smartphone Into a Mini Gameboy
In this era, children may be able to use smartphones. They look and learn the way to play with phones by looking at adults. In some cases, they want to own their smartphone to play a game or are just curious about it. Well, we suggest an idea to turn your old smartphone into a gaming device like a mini Gameboy. Yes, it is possible to do that since the game has low storage and an 8-bit graphic. Super Mario or Tetris are basic games on this case and are seamlessly smooth on all devices. You can download the game on Google Play or AppStore depending on your smartphone type. Moreover, you can add accessories like a gaming pad to help them control the game.
Convert Old Smartphone Into Google Smart Home
Your old smartphone can be reused as a universal remote for Google Home. Since it is left as a stationary device, it is placed near Google Home and stays active to control the google environment. If you don’t own this device, the smartphone itself can be transformed into Google Home Moreover. It is also a good Google command receiver as long as you have the latest update on google assistant. The android phone usually has built-in Google assistant and doesn’t need any third-party app to run them. So, try this idea to turn your smartphone into Google Home instead of throwing it away.
Mini Assistant On Your Car
Here is the thing, newer cars usually have a smart device called android auto that is installed within the car. However, some old car models can be upgraded with this system, but it is rather costly. Then, if you have any unused old smartphones, you could convert them into a mini car android system. It deliberately leaves your phone on the car as the main desktop on your car. For example, turn on music or streaming by connecting to a car speaker, use Google Maps as a direction assistant, or play the video to entertain passengers. Furthermore, owning a larger device like a tablet has a huge advantage in this matter. So bring out your creativity while modifying your car system with this idea.
Serve As a Photo Slide In Your Wall
Show off your crafty skill by reusing your old smartphone into a photo slide. This idea makes your family photo looks alive with a slide show. Moreover, it doesn’t only display images on local storage, but it could be on a cloud system as long as it has internet. Google Photos offers a simple slide show based on your storage. Another app like Fotoo is also good with lightweight apps that could run on old devices. And one thing you should try is to create a DIY dock for your smartphone. It can be placed on a desk with a stand or put on a wall like the picture above.
Tracker Device and Child Monitor With an Old Smartphone
As parents, we are usually concerned about child safety since they are so active to explore the world. On top of that, we hardly manage their activity while doing chores. Because of that, we need a device to monitor their doing. Don’t rashly buy any tools in the online shop, but your old smartphone can be transformed into a child monitor device. It is the same way as you use the video call, but you can entertain your child while you away from them. Monitoring with this idea is good for toddlers and children at 6-8 years old.
If your child going to school alone, track their movement by placing the old smartphone in their bag as a GPS tracker. You can use this creative idea to monitor what they doing on the street. This device also can be used as an emergency tool to protect the children.
Experience a Virtual Reality With Old Smartphones
You don’t have to buy an expensive gadget to experience the Virtual Reality (VR) thing. All you can do is convert an old smartphone to a VR headset. Google has a unique project called Google Cardboard that combines card boxes with smartphones into a display VR headset. You could buy a set of headwear to google with additional headphones, or DIY with used cardboard with your creativity to build ones. This thing has many benefits for introducing VR to children and knowing how its works. It may not as impressive as Oculus with additional stick devices, but it is still good to get experience on that subject. In the future, this VR may be a common thing that connects people in different regions.
Keep It As a Backup Data Plan With Hotspot Function
A Mobile data plan is regular data that is used outside the Wi-Fi range. Its prices may bit different from one plan to another, but you still need it for sure. If your old phone still has a data plan and normally could tether to other devices like your newer smartphone, use it effectively. You can save your battery while using a hotspot from your old phone and also serve as an emergency data plan. Since the internet is also one of the primary needs in 2022, using old smartphones as hotspot data is a brilliant way to keep your activity on the internet.
Compact Camera that looks like GoPro
Old smartphones usually have a smaller compact size and become larger in the latest update. Because of that, this kind of device is suitable for camera portable substitutes like GoPro. This creative idea is reusing webcam or security cam ideas for capturing images on other devices. As long as your old phone has good camera quality, you can dock it to a tripod and control the camera on another smartphone. It isn’t as good as an actual action camera that has IP or MIL rate for toughness, but this is optional to have another camera to capture in different shooting angles. If these tips are not enough to show your creative idea, we also make an article about the best camera app for android in 2022. Read it to improve your creativity in photography.
Reusing Old Smartphone as Digital Calendar
One of the creative ideas to turn old smartphones into useful tools is by converting them into stationary digitalize calendars. The uses are simple, like a conventional calendar but you could configure the alarm set and put some text for remaining your schedule. You can create a DIY dock for placing your smartphone and charging it to maintain the power and stay active. For the calendar apps, the Google Calendar app is good enough with plenty of functions and could be synced to other phones with the same account. Other apps like Microsoft Outlook or other calendar app is fine as long as they have better compatibility with your old smartphone. The simplest one could enhance your productivity in meantime with these ideas.
Support Research Experiment With Your Smartphone
To put it simply, you let your old phone be used for gathering scientific data. Many researchers conduct experiments on every element on the earth, but sometimes they lack data in certain sectors. Reusing your smartphone can be an option for scientists to collect data on your surrounding device, not your private data.
For example, the NoiseTube app collects your sound from the surrounding neighborhood and compares it with other regions. It helps to measure the noise that could affect human health. Other apps like MyShake could gather seismic data by your sensor on the old phone. Furthermore, UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory is the developer of this beneficial app. So, for people that live near seismic activity that occurs frequently, this app could contain valuable information for researchers.
To contribute to these experiments, you need to download the app first and as long as your phone is active with Wi-Fi is on, your phone is ready to collect the data.
Takeaway
As you can see, your old smartphones are still valuable with other functions. It can’t be helped since our way to see the old smartphones as webcams, security cams, or mini slide gallery are utterly rare to do. We show you this creative idea to raise awareness about the benefit of reusing old smartphones before you throw them up. Another way to treat this device is by donating it to people who need it. There are many non-profit foundations that collect these smartphones to be fixed or recycled into new ones. Hopefully, these tips could help you to find an idea to utilize the old smartphone in a different way.
