Have an old cell phone lying around? Don’t let it collect dust. Consider how you can repurpose it! Without the phone hooked up to a phone service, you obviously can’t make calls or send texts, but you can still use Wi-Fi to download apps. Many of the uses mentioned below can be used on your current phone but sometimes it’s nice to have a separate device to perform some of these activities. Using an old phone can save your new phone’s battery life and storage too. Check out what you can do!

Security System

Make it a security system. You can download an app like Alfred which gives you a remote view of your live feed, motion detection with alerts, free cloud storage, a two-way audio feed and more. You can down this on your old phone and current phone, but select Camera instead of viewer on the old phone. Mount it in a preferred location. Just be sure it can reach a power source because it will need to charge frequently.  It can also be made into a baby monitor with this setup too!

Alarm Clock

Make it an alarm clock. Keep it on a charging dock by your bed and if you like to hit the snooze button, it’s easy to grab it and catch a little more sleep before the alarm goes off again! There are a bunch of apps to choose from including ones with soothing music for a gentle wake up or ones where you have to shake your phone vigorously to ensure you are up for the day! They even have ones where you wave your hand over your phone to turn off the alarm.

Use It As A Remote

Apple TV, Roku and Fire TV have apps available to make it into a remote if you have lost yours or want a bigger screen.

eReader

Use it as your eReader device or listen to Audiobooks. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download the Kindle app for free and read your books on the phone. You can also get an Audible subscription ($14.95 after free trial) and listen to your books. For the kids, you can download reading apps like Homer or Starfall as alternatives to a tablet.

Backup Phone

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