#1 2016-11-18 20:38:47

schwim

Member

From: Coastal VA, Murica

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 342

Website

Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

Heya folks!

Long time, no type!  Hope everyone is well!

My family may end up welcoming my wife's grandma to live in our house to keep an eye on her and caretake.  We've been trying to check off all the things she needs or wants off our list and I need to figure out something for her phone.

She has a landline at her home but I'd like to try to stay away from that simply on principle.  From what I understand, Skype can handle phone calls so I thought of using my wife's tablet to use Skype for both phone calls and video chats with her family and friends that are savvy to it.

Before I do that however, I thought I'd ask the supergeniuses at the hangout if they had any ideas on a tablet, computer, phone, etc. setup that they would suggest.  I've got spare Android phones, tablets and plenty of computers to use so the capabilities are fairly broad.

Your thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

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Schw.im! A social site with an identity crisis.

photonucleon

Thursday

From: out of that impossible sky

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 299

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

Option c) android tablet with whatsapp for both voice and video calls -> never used this

WhatsApp will not work on tablets, only phones. It also does not support video calling. Voice calling is pretty good most of the time, with only occasional drop-outs if network speeds dip for whatever reason.

One app I use a lot is Hangouts. It handles voice and video calling very well, and also, with the add-on app Hangouts Dialler, you can make phone calls to actual phones (even if your device is a tablet and not a phone.) Calls made with Hangouts Dialler to USA numbers are typically free! Calls to numbers in Europe are typically £0.01 or £0.03 per minute. The downside here potentially is the Googleness of the whole thing if you'd rather avoid it

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The servant lifted off a kind of ottoman a long peacock-blue drapery, rather of the nature of a domino, on the front of which was emblazoned a large golden sun, and which was splashed here and there with flaming stars and crescents. “You’re to be dressed as Thursday, sir,” said the valet somewhat affably.

glittersloth

buena piñata

Registered: 2015-09-30

Posts: 1,533

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

Hey Schwim. Hope you're well.

I think it's a good idea to do a double take on what the family/friends use first, mainly the ones that aren't too savvy and/or still have a land line on their end. Some VOIP services (like Skype) allow you to buy credit to call fixed/land lines at discounted rates, while other services don't have that feature. If land lines aren't an issue, then you can basically go with what's most popular among the people your grandma intends to call most often.

It'd be good if everyone accommodates her and settles on a single service, but if that's not possible, I suppose you can just install all of them. I know it's considered bloat in #!speak, but hey, everything's a compromise. For receiving calls her phone will still ring and she should be able to answer like normal (you could standardize the ring tones between all the services/apps to a single one, in order not to confuse her), no matter the service/app. When it comes to her making calls to different people using different services, you can install one of those quick/speed dial apps that you can configure to call Person A on Skype, Person B on Hangouts, Person C on Whatever, etc.

Last edited by glittersloth (2016-11-22 18:05:38)

KrunchTime

Member

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 857

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

@schwim:  Good to hear from you.  Have you checked out the offerings of the likes of Tracfone, Net10, or Straight Talk, depending on how much you anticipate your grandmother making/receiving calls?  Tracfone is a prepaid service, so you only spend money on what you actually use, to a degree.  However, it is not the best deal for heavy phone users.  Net10 and Straight Talk are unlimited services, but much cheaper than the big carriers.

You might also search on "phones for senior citizens".  There is one service provider that offers phones with big numbers, thinking your grandmother may be visually challenged.  I think the fee for the phone service is less than desirable though.

g33zr

Member

From: State of Confusion

Registered: 2015-09-30

Posts: 281

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

As an old fart and grandparent, I recommend checking out Consumer Cellular, which offers inexpensive packages s well as a decent selection of phones from "dumb" to "smart" phones. My wife and I each have one. Our package includes 1,000 min/mo, 5,000 texts, and 250 mb data, which covers both of us. I pay a little extra for overseas calls ($.04/min landline and $.07/min cell), but the monthly bill is usually below $50, including my overseas calls. See: https://www.consumercellular.com/

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What? Me worry?

Red pill or blue pill?

KrunchTime

Member

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 857

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

@g33zr:  That may be the service I have seen marketed for senior citizens.

g33zr

Member

From: State of Confusion

Registered: 2015-09-30

Posts: 281

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

^ My wife and I have used CC for a few years and have had no problems. We previously used Net 10 and a different phone, but didn't like the service at all. When we started out with CC, we signed up with the most basic package and just one Doro clamshell phone. BTW, our current package has 500 mb data and NOT 250 mb,as I erroneously wrote above. Customer service is excellent, at least from our experience.

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What? Me worry?

Red pill or blue pill?

KrunchTime

Member

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 857

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

^ I love my TracFone service.  Only negative is the few times I've had to deal with customer service; not horrible, but not the greatest either.

BLizgreat!

Resident Babbler - vll!

Registered: 2015-10-03

Posts: 1,217

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

May as well babble a tad too.

Guessing a lot of it would depend on her usage habits, the whole how many mins/txts + data she'd go through on avg. Google US MVNO's ( mobile virtual network operators.) Think it's important to choose one which is known to have good coverage in your area. As far as am aware, Verizon's got the best in the country, with At&t right behind it and T-mobile and Sprint being lower quality but not in all areas.

Wouldn't trust the coverage maps xyz-carrier puts on their sites. Are folks who compile actual user submitted data and will share it. One is root metrics, supposed to have compiled actual real life condition stats of like 5mil + samples (2015). There are others which do this too. Personally thinking if someone goes with something Verizon or At&t are probably going to be good to go for the most part. Can't hurt to double check for your area though.

Maybe add her to your/wife's current carrier plan ? Folks get discounts, depending on your circumstances everyone might save a bit of cash. Again do think it's prudent to find out who's network whichever carrier(s) you're evaluating use. Just had a recent bad experience with Tracphone, one of their mnvo's = SimpleMobile. They use the T-mobile network but the company/SM is run by the same folks who run Tracphone. Also read somewhere recently that this company is taking some serious hits and losing customers in droves.

Jmo, Gophone ( is strictly At&t) and they had some good looking deals. One with unlimited talk/text + 4gbs data for $40mnth, $35 with autopay elected + no doubt a few bucks in taxes. If all someone wants is unlimited talk/text, should be able to get that for $20-25mnth though. No shortage of mvno's out there with plenty of whichever size fits someone's needs packages.

More babble: Consumer Cellular uses the At&t network, may outright be owned by them, can't remember. Think they're mostly good for people with minimal phone needs overall. You've mentioned you already have a couple decent phones sitting around, so as long as they're compatible with whichever carrier(s) networks and you're ok with giving it to grandma, sheesh why buy another one ?

Basically GSM = At&t, T-mobile or anyone who uses their networks. CDMA = Verizon, Sprint or anyone who uses theirs. They're even making phones which support all of them nowadays and in the future planning on buying one of those myself. A carrier unlocked android device, you can get service on from pretty much any of them is on my wish list.

Though dang it still have to read the fine print on your device too. Making sure it supports whichever freq-bands. Would be annoying to order a SIM, get it, activate and find out the phone doesn't support xyz-band, so can't get highspeed data you're paying for.

Last edited by BLizgreat! (2016-12-06 13:36:36)

photonucleon

Thursday

From: out of that impossible sky

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 299

Re: Creating a grandma-friendly phone/video phone

Option c) android tablet with whatsapp for both voice and video calls -> never used this

WhatsApp will not work on tablets, only phones. It also does not support video calling. Voice calling is pretty good most of the time, with only occasional drop-outs if network speeds dip for whatever reason.

WhatsApp now supports video calling. Not entirely sure when this changed, but yeah. Seems to work OK

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The servant lifted off a kind of ottoman a long peacock-blue drapery, rather of the nature of a domino, on the front of which was emblazoned a large golden sun, and which was splashed here and there with flaming stars and crescents. “You’re to be dressed as Thursday, sir,” said the valet somewhat affably.