11 Ways to Repurpose an Old Phone or Tablet

Ella Castle

Photo: RossHelen (Shutterstock) If you own smart home products, you know how fun they can be to play around with. Anyone with smart lights has wowed guests by changing the bulb’s colors at will, but the product line extends far beyond that. Nearly every appliance in your house that runs […]

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Photo: RossHelen (Shutterstock)

If you own smart home products, you know how fun they can be to play around with. Anyone with smart lights has wowed guests by changing the bulb’s colors at will, but the product line extends far beyond that. Nearly every appliance in your house that runs on electricity has a smart version; if you go all-in, that’s a lot of devices to manage at once.

To control all this smart technology, you could rely on apps on your current smartphone and tablet, but there’s one issue: Without access to your phone or tablet, it’s difficult to control the smart devices. If they’re connected to a smart speaker, voice controls bridges this gap. However, if you don’t have a smart speaker, or you don’t feel like speaking every time you want to turn the lights off, an old phone or tablet can be retrofitted to be a dedicated smart home controller.

Place the device out in the open in your home, accessible to anyone who needs to control your smart devices. With a few taps, they can tweak that needs to be tweaked without needing to use your primary phone or hurl commands at your Google Home.

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