Don’t throw it away!: 5 clever ideas on how to breathe new life into old cell phones

Anyone who switches to a new mobile phone should not throw away their old one or let it gather dust in a drawer. Instead, there are a lot of useful uses for which decommissioned smartphones are perfectly suited. We have collected five ideas for you here.

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A new cell phone has to be in there from time to time, but it makes no sense to simply throw the predecessors in the trash. Many smartphones have a second or third life. What is often done: In many families, mobile phones move through the different generations. If the parents have a spare cell phone, it is set up again and then passed on to the children.

Of course, you can also give it away to friends or try to sell the disused cell phone. But sometimes there is also a creative area of application at home. We have five suggestions on how to repurpose your old phone.

1. Smartphone as a TV remote control

TV remote controls are simply disappearing in some households or they are piling up. The mobile phone can help in both cases if you convert it into remote controls with apps.

It’s definitely worth visiting the website of your TV manufacturer, because Samsung, LG, Philips & Co. have their own TV apps on offer. The remote control via app is particularly convenient if you have TVs from several manufacturers. The old smartphone then becomes a universal remote control.

You can also control the popular Fire TV Stick from Amazon not only with the supplied remote control, but also with your cell phone. To do this, install the Amazon Fire TV app.

2. Smartphone as a landline phone

Of course, nowadays you can also use your cell phone to make calls, and in contrast to the past, it doesn’t cost that much anymore. But classic Internet access is still piggybacked on a landline connection. You can set up a decommissioned mobile phone as an additional landline telephone.

FritzBox users have it particularly easy, because AVM provides the practical FritzApp Fon. This allows you to convert your old cell phone into a cordless phone.

3. Smartphone as a smart kitchen helper

A smartphone is in very practical in the kitchen. But you don’t want to touch the expensive mobile phone with dirty fingers or expose it to the risk of it getting splattered with batter. The converted old cell phone can also cope with the rough everyday life in the kitchen.

What you then need: preferably a good charging station in which the mobile phone stands upright and a suitable app with recipes to cook at home. Kitchen Stories is a good choice here with a comprehensive cookbook. The well-illustrated instructions and video tutorials are particularly helpful for beginners – you can see every step of the work in detail.

4. Smartphone as a webcam

We have gotten used to working from home and homeschooling. What is important here: In video conferences, the picture and sound must be right. If you don’t have a webcam or if the quality of the notebook camera is rather poor, then the mobile phone can also be converted into a webcam.

With ToolManyCam, you can turn Android phones and iPhones into webcams. You need to install the ManyCam desktop version on your computer and the ManyCam app on your smartphone. Sign up for a ManyCam user account and log in to both devices with the same account.

Then you can add the “Mobile App” to ManyCam on the Windows desktop under “Video Sources”. Select your mobile phone and allow the connection. You also have to nod off the access again in the app, then you will see the image of your Mobile phone camera in the ManyCam window on the desktop Now you can feed the new video source to Skype, Teams & Co. To do this, set “ManyCam Virtual Webcam” as the camera in the device settings.

The free ManyCam version displays a watermark and does not allow more than two video sources. If you want more, you have to buy a paid package.

Samsung smartphones at a glance (display)

5. Smartphone as a WLAN hotspot in the car

A WLAN hotspot in the car is practical and of course this luxury is already built in. But with a converted mobile phone, you can easily retrofit it. In addition to the mobile phone, only one charging option is required. Depending on the car equipment, a USB cable is sufficient for this or you can get a charging cable for the cigarette lighter.

The mobile phone that becomes a hotspot naturally needs a data connection. Second cards, which are available with many mobile phone contracts, are practical here. Setting up the hotspot works directly on Android and iOS, an additional app is not necessary here.