Thank you, these tips and tricks are for shure useful to save mobile data, but it still doesn’t solve the issue of possibly consuming all mobile data in just a few days (instead of lasting the whole month).
For the tips you provided, you need at least some self discipline. But if you ever tryed stop smoking or watching less TV or similar, you know that it’s often not too easy to maintain that self discipline longterm. So what I want is more like a parachute or emergency brake (metaphorically speaking). I hope you get the picture
@anon24191858
You can use ScreenStream Screen Stream | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
and forward the port over a traditional VPN.
You would have to do the initial VPN setup on site, with a capable router.
And each use the user would have to start the stream and provide you with the PIN via phone or what have you.
Performance is actually quite reasonable on 2016+ devices.
You could also use an Onion service via Orbot, but that might not be responsive enough and isn’t so grandma-friendly.
Long term the best option is just to sit down with them if possible for a few hours and walk them through stuff. And write stuff down on real paper along the way. Even in a QA format eg. “how do I share a picture? 1. x, 2. y, 3. z”
Android does have the option of remote control and remote support viewing. I use AnyDesk and QuickSupport (Teamviewer), both unfortunately closed source. I support my parents-in-law and my sister-in-law like this.
Both apps allow remote control, so really doing touch control on the remote phone. I suppose that any app that denies screenshots (banking apps and such) will refuse to launch whilst such remote control apps are running.
So I would really like to have such an app in the FOSS ecosystem too.
Another way to do remote support is with Signal (for various reasons not on f-droid) or some similar app, doing a video chat, then having them point the video camera to the other (problematic) device. Obviously, the remote access & control is much easier, but as a workaround it’s better than nothing.
@aRTee
Hah.
AnyDesk/TeamViewer accomplishes that by having “add-on” apps. Each app requests the INJECT_EVENTS permission.
However INJECT_EVENTS has a protectionLevel of signature meaning only apps signed with the releasekey of the system image can request it.
If you take a look some of the add-on apps you’ll see that they are actually signed by each manufacturer. jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs x.apk
Seems they managed to get a ton of manufacturers to sign their helper apps.
A bit questionable imo.
Well, I learnt something, so thanks a lot!
Indeed, you have to install a device specific helper app if you want to grant control.
Without that, though, it is possible to see the screen, which may be sufficient if the other person is capable of doing the presses.
With my parents-in-law, this works okay, with my sister-in-law not so much, because she is deaf, so I can’t tell her what to do.
Another vote for the small footprint Trebuchet with more options. On my previous phone I used HoloLauncher but Trebuchet allows me to jump to a letter of the alphabet. I this find so useful it’s my latest must-have launcher feature.
