I got a task to buy a smart phone for my grandparents, they are not techsavy but they know how to use basic functions. Iam looking for an andoid because it has language pack i need. I dont need it to have lots of functions, onley a good camera and a big screen. Bonus points if it can be flashed with some kind of simplefied version of android.
The “S0S” makes me more uncomfortable than it should…
Edit: My discomfort does not stem from the mere concept of an SOS button; It’s more subtle than that. If “SOS” stands for “save our souls”, does “S0S” stand for “save zero souls”?
SOS doesn’t stand for anything. People made it up later.
The original distress signal was CQD, which stood for “seeking you, distress” or “all stations, distress,” according to PBS. This was widely used by the British, while Germans used SOE and the Americans used NC, which meant “call for help without delay.”
A 1906 International Telegraphic Radio Conference effectively standardized communication by suggesting the simpler SOS, which is easier to signal because of its distinct dots and dashes sequence.
Yo, it’s Save Our Ship, not souls. Elderly people are more likely to need to call emergency services, so having a dedicated button for it seems like a good idea.
From my perspective you don’t necessarily need a simplified Android but only a simplified launcher. There are plenty of senior friendly launchers in the play store.
My advice is a little different than others. I recently got my in-laws outfitted with smartphones and a new nuc. My father in-law has Parkinson's, slow onset, but it means he is clumsy. It's not likely that his phone will survive shaky hands for 8 years. What I did was buy refurbished OnePlus phones, install a simple launcher, install Bitdefender, and then add a lock app that let's me add a pin to the system settings app and the play store.
They can't install anything out change things. They can browse, play games I preload, take pictures, etc, but I don't have to worry about them installing things they shouldn't. If one of the phone dies I'll just get the latest affordable refurbished of the same line and configure it the same way.
I had originally tried without locking the phone down as much but my father in law could not stop installing spammy weather apps and clicking ads on games and following there instructions.
I also created new Google accounts for them that I manage, so they can't get stuff stolen with bad account management practice.
If you are in the US, I've also found mint to be a good deal for cell service.
yea i would skip all smartphones. i got them an ipad. my parents are i their 80. there was no way failing eyesight and hand coordination can handle a tiny smartphone screen. Also skip android. Android has truly shitty touch interface responsiveness compared to Apple devices. Apple has the world's best natural touch responsiveness. This is the main reason Apple is wooping Android ass. Dont waste money on smartphones for elderly. Only Ipads have a chance of working.
in fact for my mum, i was inclined to skip all touch devices. as a lady she has long fingernails. with arthritis making her fingers more crooked, there was no way for her to use a touchscreen. her fingernails would always tap the screen first. even if she trimmed her nails, her nails would touch first and the touch interface would fail. so i obtained a push button phone for her, old vintage desktop style.
Spotted the Apple advertisement. I don't think gettin an overpriced piece of hardware to clumsy hands over a supposed "touch superiority" is a good idea.
If its an iPhone I would go with an iPhone plus for the screen size.
If its android, I would go with a Samsung A device. They’re usually big in size, affordable, comes with a lot of accessibility features, good battery, and relatively easy to find accessories and spare parts.
Jokes aside, Doro has a range of reasonably priced phones, from old style to Android smartphones, with “Old people interface” available to cut down on the techno fluff old folks likely won’t use. 3/4 grandparents were able to operate them, can recommend.
I got my 70 y/o mom a Samsung A Galaxy and she absolutely loves it. She need some coaching sometimes, but I’m always surprised with what she can do with it.
if you’re located in europe, fairphones might be an option. pretty expensive for what they are, but they get 7 years of software support. plus they’re easily fixable if your grandparents are a bit clumsy.
they have been getting bigger every generation, and the cameras are quite usable under normal lighting conditions.
I’d double check that language you need isn’t already on iPhone. They’ve added pretty much every language spoken by at least 100k people.
iPhone is really the only choice for the computer/smartphone illiterate. You can’t easily put the device in an unrecognizable state, you can’t install a launcher that drastically changes the GUI from the app store. iPhone justifiably gets tons of shit, but this is the exact use case it’s designed for. They also have really good accessibility features, and they actually work in apps.
Android has tons of benefits, and I’ve had only android for the last 14 years. I think if you are planning on removing the settings app all together, you know it’s not a great choice for them.
Depends massively on your budget, i would buy any 400ish dollar phone from any well known chinese brand (Redmi, Realme) and flash it with something like lineage OS, the hardware is good enough and will last a few years, if you have a higher budget, something like the asus zenfone is also good and you probably won’t need to modify the software (unless you want to)
Stay away from samsung imo, they are harder to mod and their budget phones are far from the best, they may look decent on paper but the software and speed are very lackluster
Some older apple devices. I usually despise apple devices but their strong points usually are big screen + good camera while also being piss easy to use for non techsavvy people.
I would buy an iphone and jailbreak, remove settings apps, useless apps and make it minimalistic, but it doesnt have language pack i need so i cant use it
The foss apps I dont agree with but a stock grapheneos setup is as basic as it gets so even a non tech person can use it. OP can even set it up for them to auto update whatever apps they use through the playstore so the grandparents dont really have to do anything
The problem is that other people will be unfamiliar with it. Unless OP can be the support person all the time, the grandparents may want to get help from someone else.
Keeping things stock is helpful for that, and I feel like Google Pixel is already simple enough. Just disable things like assistant during setup or in settings.
I agree to disagree it’s really not that different from vanilla especially if he does go the playstore route, so a person familiar with android can naviagate grapheneos. The only problem would be if they break their device and the thumbprint scanner would have to be recalibrated. Personally I would just keep it as the stock grapheneos setup with accessibility features turned to max. That way its a dumb smartphone
Edit: forgot to mention regardless of os add some kind of network firewall or DNS solution to block malicious/phishing domains. The elderly are often victims of scams
it is basic but you rum into compatibility issues every once in a while which they will not be able to figure out. And also, if you don’t agree with the Foss apps, it means you will just install the regular familiar google apps, which if you do that, does not make much of a difference if you are on GOS or stock Android
it does a difference to be on GOS. Google apps are sandboxed and are safer than in vanilla android, and grapheneos has features to mitigate exploits and again… as easy as a toggle buttons.
I see where you are coming from but I disagree. Using grapheneos will allow much more security and control over the device so OP can fine tune their grandparent’s device to their liking. As for not agreeing with the foss apps I really mean in this situation specifically. Foss apps often run into problems with stability (look at newpipe due to youtube) and ease of use (look at collabora) which will frustrate an older person and with grapheneos at least OP can further lockdown the proprietary apps that their grandparents would use if they do so in the first place. However, since OP stated they just want a phone that’s simple that’s why I would go with the stock grapheneos setup without adding new applications. As for compatiability, unless they are driving or banking which I doubt since they just know tha basics of a smartphone, I doubt this will be a problem since the majority of mainstream apps work. Grapheneos is meant for freedom and securiry over your device not just privacy
i run my Pixel + GrapheneOS as daily and it’s very simple to set up, it does not even take 30 minutes to install the OS if you read the instructions from the official webpage. Does not have any bloat or unnecesary apps at all, no telemetry or tracking. No distractions of the main point of a phone. You can install normal apps from the Aurora Store and FOSS (clean, simple and useful) apps from F-Droid. The battery charge lasts all day and the phone it’s fast and secure.
the same aurora store that wouldnt work for half the times and you would have to go to the google play website for an application and click on “open in app” on ur browser?
woah! you really look like the half empty glass type of person. That’s why their grandson/daugther it’s going to set it up for them. I’ve been using AuroraStore for a long time and I never had to do any of that. Still, once you have installed the apps you need, correctly, the only concurrent task is to apply updates and I never had any problems with that either.
My father-in-law had one. It was awful. It made it so much harder for us to help him with issues. And apart from the system apps everything he got didn’t fit into how everything else worked. He was much better off with a regular Android he got later.
In my experience, older people want to use their smartphones forever so that they don’t have to relearn how to use them. If I were you, I would therefore use a mobile phone with the longest possible software support. I think that the Google Pixel 8 fulfils your criteria and offers very long software support among Android smartphones. Given Google’s size, you can also assume that the company won’t go bankrupt before then.
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