I have a couple Android phones with little resell value and I’m wondering what I could do with them on my spare time.
Not sure if this is the right sub to ask but figured it could be a good start to see if anyone here has done anything with phones.
You can glue them together for double phones.
Glue the edges together and make your own Surface Duo.
Ive seen people building whole houses from empty bottles. He could do the same with those phones. He would end up with true “smarthome”
You can use it as a security camera on the cheap.
SyncThing backup storage.
I don’t know if it’s still viable but few years back I used to use my old Android phone/phablet as extra monitor for my pc to monitor stats with Spacedesk. It runs on wifi and gives you the ability to add multi devices as monitors so potentially you can make all your old phones into many monitors for your pc as long as they are all on the same network.
If its not crazy old you could get a super cheap nvmo service and toss it in your car/emergency bag with a spare battery pack and cable
Leave one in the car, for emergencies
If you do this, keep a cable and charger handy. An old unused phone battery will drain.
I have an old LG phone, placed horizontally that I rest on a phone stand and use as my bedside alarm clock
One of my first Android phones… (a Motorolla Droid X) became our digital clock, years ago. This all happened because the cable TV box we had at the time didn’t have a clock on it. We used it for a few years that way.
Set it up as a smart display with a dashboard of some sort and hang it up somewhere?
Turn them into security cameras:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ivuu&hl=en_GB&gl=US&pli=1
Wifi based walkie talkies for the kids? hehe
Currently using 4 android phones I got from friends/families “junk drawer” to use as a home security system.
Won’t that be easily exploited when exposed to the Internet, considering the OS has not been updated for years?
No need to expose to the Internet. You can e.g. expose them to Home-Assistant/openHAB only, or VPN to your LAN then connect to them.
That sounds really interesting. Can you share how you set this up and what software you used?
It’s just an app from the play store. I’ve looked into self-hosted open source things but didn’t find much. The app I use is called “Alfred”. It has the basic features. Motion sensor People sensor Saves the motion clips to the cloud Continuous playback Two-way talk Auto-low light Etc…
You you keep the phones permanently plugged in or charge them periodically?
Plugged in all time,screen off, battery saver on 😊
Something I was looking at the other day: you can use them as Streamdecks. (StReam, not Steam.) Basically they become external keyboards, each key being assigned to a function such as start a program, select a tool or whatever, with a graphic to suit.
Elgato (who make the Streamdeck) make an Android app to use a phone as a deck, and there are several other such apps.
You could also have a look at r/androidafterlife
Turn them into sms gateways
How would you do this? Any specific apps or methods that can be used?