A perfect tool for remote troubleshooting

Dwelling hundreds of miles away from household by no means will get straightforward, however video calling apps like WhatsApp and Google Meet have made the space extra tolerable for my mother and father and me. One other facet they’ve simplified is distant troubleshooting.

Being the techie within the household, I typically have to assist them handle any surprising disturbances on the TV, cable field, laptop, telephones, and extra. At first, my mother and father’ intuition throughout troubleshooting video calls was to show their cellphone’s display screen in direction of the article they wished me to repair, leading to awkward angles and common confusion. It took just a few tries to get them used to tapping the digicam change icon every time they wished assist with particular objects.

A couple of weeks in the past we took one other leap in our troubleshooting adventures: display screen sharing. Sure, girls and gents, that is probably the most incredible device for troubleshooting a cellphone remotely and I pity the idiot who’s not utilizing it. Particularly because it’s solely a few faucets away in Google Duo Meet.

When my mother wished some assist dismissing a caught notification on her Pixel 5 just a few weeks in the past, I mentally pictured the method of determining which app was inflicting the problem after which force-stopping it. I instantly dreaded how I’d have to elucidate it, step-by-step, on a name. Then I remembered: My mother has a Pixel 5 now, so we are able to use display screen sharing in Google Meet. (Extra on that incorrect Pixel limitation assumption in a bit.)

I merely informed her to faucet the display screen throughout our video name, then the stars icon (backside proper) > Display share > Begin now. (On Pixel and Samsung telephones, it’s stars icon > Reside sharing > Share now > Begin now.)

And ta-da, I may see her display screen now — magic!

I guided her step-by-step, seeing each motion she was performing and all of the menus and pop-ups (in French, heaven assist me) till we discovered it was a caught picture obtain from the Google app. We force-stopped the app and relaunched it, and increase, no extra notification.

For the primary minute, my mother was a bit weirded out by the truth that I may see what she was seeing. She was nonetheless making an attempt to learn me the menus and inform me what was taking place on her cellphone, till she realized she didn’t should. Display sharing lower our troubleshooting course of’s time in half, if no more. It’s so significantly better than guessing screens my mother and father would attempt to describe to me, ready for them to learn me each phrase of each menu, or picturing choices in my head to level them to a selected button. Total, it’s sooner, smarter, and extra environment friendly than some other methodology we’ve used earlier than.

I’m a bit offended at myself for not having tried this sooner. Oh, the hours I may’ve saved! However in my protection, display screen sharing rolled out tremendous slowly over a number of years in Google Duo/Meet. It was a Pixel unique at first, then it began exhibiting up on fashionable Samsung telephones, however after checking it for months and months, I gave up on it showing on extra gadgets. Now, it appears to be accessible on most telephones and tablets with Android 8.0 and above. I examined it on a number of Google Pixels, a number of OnePlus fashions from the 6T onward, a Galaxy S21 Plus, an Honor Magic 4 Professional, and even an outdated Huawei MediaPad M5 pill operating Android 8.0. It labored flawlessly on all of them.

In the event you typically have to assist pals or relations with their telephones and it’s important to do it on a name, I’ve nothing however good issues to say about Meet. It’s positively higher than making an attempt to make use of Zoom or Skype as a result of it’s pre-installed on most Android telephones and tablets these days, it’s straightforward to arrange with a cellphone quantity or e-mail deal with, and you may rapidly get on a name with anybody and ask them to share their display screen. Serving to them doesn’t should be a irritating expertise anymore.