How are people keeping in contact with older family members nowdays?

[Mottie]

WhatsApp, Facetime, Zoom? Not too bad with us, our friends and our kids but I bought the MIL an iPad last year so that we could all send her emails/pictures of her grandkids but we just end up opening them for her when we visit! My wife has just come back from delivering her shopping (left on the front porch) and she then popped round the back to chat to her through the window from a safe distance. She tried to tell her how to activate some apps on the iPad but she reckons she may have had more luck talking to the garden fence. Is there anything similar that a non-tech, dead from the neck up oldie can use?

 

[SirGalahad]

WhatsApp, Facetime, Zoom? Not too bad with us, our friends and our kids but I bought the MIL an iPad last year so that we could all send her emails/pictures of her grandkids but we just end up opening them for her when we visit! My wife has just come back from delivering her shopping (left on the front porch) and she then popped round the back to chat to her through the window from a safe distance. She tried to tell her how to activate some apps on the iPad but she reckons she may have had more luck talking to the garden fence. Is there anything similar that a non-tech, dead from the neck up oldie can use?

Try amazon echo show.

 

[Mottie]

Thanks but none of us apart from my son has one of those. I was thinking of something simple on the iPad. Wishful thinking, I know!

 

[SirGalahad]

Thanks but none of us apart from my son has one of those. I was thinking of something simple on the iPad. Wishful thinking, I know!

You can get siri to make a call.

 

[Mottie]

Thanks again. She gets regular phone calls but I was hoping for some kind of video calling app so that she can see her grandchildren and great grandchildren as she’s in self isolation for the next 3 months. I suppose the only way is to go round and get the iPad, bring it home, disinfect it and set up something on it such as facetime so she can just press 'answer' or something.

 

[SirGalahad]

Thanks again. She gets regular phone calls but I was hoping for some kind of video calling app so that she can see her grandchildren and great grandchildren as she’s in self isolation for the next 3 months. I suppose the only way is to go round and get the iPad, bring it home, disinfect it and set up something on it such as facetime so she can just press 'answer' or something.

Get the ipad off here and setup facetime. Test it a few times, write down instructions and then get it back to her. She will get the hang of it.

https://www.siriuserguide.com/article/use-siri-to-start-a-facetime-call

 

[Deleted member 18243]

Skype is good.

 

[Bodd]

I stand out side the window.

Mum it's Bod how are you.

MUM IT'S YOUR SON BODD. HOW'S DAD.

IT'S YOUR SON BODD.

HOW'S DAD.

I'M YOUR SON

 

[ericmark]

I used a camera with my late mother, not ideal, there was a delay between receive and transmit, and to get mother to count to ten before answering was not easy. And some times the server was down.

She had an alarm connected to call centre, but that needed her to do something to start the call, and once they dropped the call no way to restart it. So the camera allowed us to start the call, around 8 times out of 10 it worked, but did need to drive down some times for no good reason in middle of night, In end had to move in with her.

Much depends on how good the old are, my dad could have used the PC but non of the others could.

 

[Mottie]

Much depends on how good the old are, my dad could have used the PC but non of the others could.

Yeah, my 83 year old mum has a PC, printer, iPad and iPhone is always on 'em - WhatsApp, Facebook, eBay, Amazon, online banking, email etc. The 79 year old MIL just can’t grasp opening an app. Can just about send a text. Often she sends them to our house phone. Can’t use a smart phone - I gave her one of my old iPhones once but she couldn’t hack it - has to have an old clam shell phone so she can just open it when it rings.

 

[JohnD]

I stand out side the window.

If you're able to stand at the window, you might do better using the phone to talk, while being able to see each other.

 

[Mottie]

If you're able to stand at the window, you might do better using the phone to talk, while being able to see each other.

That’s what the wife had to do last week when she dropped some shopping off for her mum. Left the shopping on the doorstep then legged it back to the car. Once her mum had taken it in and put it away, she talked to her from the car.

 

[Brigadier]

 

[durhamplumber]

Is there anything similar that a non-tech, dead from the neck up oldie can use?

Telephone

 

[Mottie]

Telephone

See post #5.