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How do you support elderly relatives' use of tech? (self.technology)

submitted 1 year ago by middlemuddle to c/technology

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I'm mostly asking this question for smartphones, but I'm also just generally curious how others approach this.

My parents are both 75+ and live across the country. One has a smartphone and a chromebook and the other has a dumbphone and has a Windows laptop. They're capable, but learning new things is pretty hard, and if anything goes a bit wrong they're very unlikely to figure out how to get past it themselves.

The Windows laptop is easiest to manage because I can remote in and fix things pretty quick, and browser extensions prevent the ads which might lead to signing up for new services. I gave up on trying to figure out how to remote into the chromebook.

The smartphone is the most problematic since browser extensions are limited and don't apply to the Google News app, where my dad spends a lot of his time. He's managed to install a bunch of random apps that he doesn't remember ever using, so now I have Google FamilyLink installed which should prevent that. But he also inadvertently long-presses on the home screen and moves icons around, removes them, adds new ones, etc.

I'm just looking for any tips people might have on this general topic. We're all our family's tech support in some way, it's just getting more difficult for me as they get older.

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[–] tom5760 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't have any great advice for phones, so definitely looking forward to reading everyone else's replies, but:

I gave up on trying to figure out how to remote into the chromebook.

Does Chrome Remote Desktop work on Chromebooks? I've had really good luck with this in general for PC support.

[–] middlemuddle 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does Chrome Remote Desktop work on Chromebooks?

It doesn't work for unattended access. I have to coordinate with my dad so that he can open the site and send me an access code, which doesn't sound that hard, but definitely never goes smoothly. It's a very Google move for a service they provide on a device they built to not have full functionality.

[–] tom5760 1 points 1 year ago

It doesn’t work for unattended access.

Aha. Didn't think about unattended access... Good luck!