Cell Phone

The Most Unusual Smartphone Features

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The smartphone has long replaced our camera, calendar, music player, watch, and even our bank card. It’s everyone’s companion at work and on vacation, letting everyone complete their work tasks or even bet via 22Bet. However, this is not the limit – many gadgets have other useful features that many people don’t realize.

Remote Control

If you have a lot of multimedia equipment at home, you have probably faced the problem of finding the right remote control. In the past it was possible to solve it by buying a universal remote, but it’s an additional investment, and its adjustment isn’t an easy process. Now with a couple of clicks, you can turn your phone into a full-fledged remote. The only requirement is that your smartphone has an IR sensor.

In many models of the medium and high price category, the developers embed an infrared sensor.

It can be used to control a variety of home appliances: TV, air conditioner, robot vacuum cleaner, player and so on. The capabilities usually depend on the application. Major brands have proprietary software: LG TV Remote, Samsung Smart View, Mi Smart Remote. They are usually already pre-installed in the operating system. Usually you need to select the brand/model, and then the application will automatically form the remote control interface.

If there is no branded app, you can download a third-party app. The availability of features is individual for each software, but it’s worth trying to get rid of a couple of unnecessary remotes with your smartphone.

Multifunctional Translator and Guide

The camera paired with Internet access is capable of doing a lot.The greatest opportunities offer the proprietary development of Google Lens. It can be downloaded absolutely free in Play Market, if the software was not pre-installed before.

Google Lens turns your smartphone into a magic wand, which is capable of:

  • Recognize text. Point the camera and get a finished text, which can be copied and sent. It’s convenient if you need to read a recipe from a picture or quickly get a text version of a printed document.
  • Translator. It works in the same way, you put the camera to the text and get a translation.
  • Homework. The app can recognize complex formulas that are extremely problematic to type in a search engine.

When going on a trip or shopping, be sure to install Google Lens. The app will help with translations or quickly find out the price of a product. The main thing is to have access to the Internet.

Distribute mobile Internet to a PC

A mobile hotspot is a very useful feature if you want to share the Internet with other gadgets. But what about personal computers, which usually do not have a built-in Wi-Fi module? That’s also where a smartphone comes in handy.

It’s enough to connect the gadget via USB and activate the USB modem function. The PC itself may only need to select a new network. You can share both the mobile Internet and the Wi-Fi network. A good way to bypass corporate lockouts or get online when your main tariff runs out. Installation of any drivers is usually not required.

Screen Broadcasting Function

You can turn your smartphone into the equivalent of a projector. Watching photos and videos on a small screen is inconvenient, but you can broadcast the picture to your widescreen TV via Wi-Fi. The devices only need to be in the same local network.

To do this, activate the screen broadcasting function on your smartphone (may also be called Miracast, “Wireless Display”) and confirm the pairing on your TV.

Screen Sharing

Can you watch videos and surf the web on my smartphone at the same time? Yes, if the split screen feature is supported. Simply select two apps and place them at the top and bottom of the screen.

This will be relevant for gadgets with a large screen diagonal – “shovel phones”. The only disadvantage is that not all apps support screen sharing.

Cloning Apps

What if you want to use two or more accounts in one app? To avoid having to sign in and out each time, try cloning an app.

The operating system will create a complete duplicate of the app, so you can use the second account in it and then switch between the original and clone with a couple of taps.

Scanner

If you need to get an exceptionally high-quality photo of a document, it’s better to use the built-in scanner function. It’s available on most smartphones, but if you don’t have it, you can always download a third-party app.

It’s enough to point the camera at the document and select the borders. Then you can further edit the image, set a suitable contrast or brightness.  The scanner differs from the usual camera by the special settings of focus and contrast, thanks to which the lens better perceives dark text on a white background.

Digital Key

Almost all latest smartphones are equipped with an NFC module. It’s used mostly for contactless payment: it is enough to bring your smartphone to the scanner, and the money for the purchase will be automatically deducted. And no cash or plastic cards.

But that’s not the only thing NFC can do. First, the smartphone can be used as a universal key. This is relevant if you have an NFC-based pass system at work. It’s much easier to leave and lose a pass than a smartphone. Secondly, with NFC tags, you can set the smartphone to turn on different modes. For example, set up a tag in the car, which will automatically open the navigator on the phone.

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