10 Uses For Your Old Smartphone

Smartphones are an absolute necessity in today’s information age. After a few years, though, devices—particularly those that we carry with us at all times—are bound to show a little wear and tear. They might have some bumps and scratches, or perhaps they slow down. But if you take some basic precautions, your old phone can have a productive afterlife.

- Evan Dashevsky

1. KIDS’ CAMERA

Pixl Toys recently launched a Kickstarter to raise funds to produce a shell that could transform old smartphones into handy, rugged cameras for kids. Even if you don’t buy into this particular effort by Pixl, the project showcases an obvious second life for smartphones as standalone cameras. You don’t need a wireless network for the camera to work, and any images can be transmitted via Wi-Fi or a wired medium.

2. ALWAYS-ON SKYPE MACHINE

As long as you have decent Wi-Fi coverage, your old smartphone could serve as a dedicated Skype interface (or FaceTime, Google Duo, or whichever video chat platform you prefer). This guarantees you won’t miss a call, and you can still use your main device while conversing with friends and family.

3. CLOCK (FOR ALARMS OR WALLS)

Painfully obvious pro tip: Your phone’s nice, big display will still work even if you don’t have a network connection. One cool use might be as a permanent clock—but one that is much more versatile than your standard bedside ticktocker. We used a free Android app, Digital Clock Live Wallpaper-7, which lets you display the date and time in a number of ways. A zillion other clock apps do similar things—just find the right one for you.

4. VR HEADSET