Smartphones are used for making phone calls and sending text messages, but they can also be used to access the Internet and check email, search the Internet and much more.
There are many different brands of smartphones, e.g.
- iPhone - made by Apple
- Android phones made by Samsung, HTC, etc.
- Windows Phones made by Nokia
The difference between the phones is that they have different operating systems developed by different manufacturers. You can use your fingers to operate the touch screen of your phone or you can also use a pencil-like device called a stylus which makes it easier to use. You will find a stylus in most electronics stores.
A word you'll see a lot: Applications
This is a shortcut that takes you directly to the program or website you want to access. It is represented by a picture or symbol. You will see many applications on your phone.
*Please note that different brands of smartphones will have different symbols. Everything in this guide may not appear as it actually does on your phone.
Buttons on your smartphone
Headphone slot: You can insert headphones here.
Home Button: Press this button at any time and you will exit whatever app you are in and return to your home window
How to call
Modern phones have an intuitive interface. Having turned on and unlocked the device, you will immediately see the bottom panel of icons, where the most necessary functions are located.
For example, even if you don’t know how to use the Lenovo A328 smartphone, a beginner will still understand that to make a call you need to touch the green icon with the image of a handset. In the menu that opens, you can view the latest calls made, dial a number on the keyboard, and also view contacts stored in the phone and SIM card memory. For experienced users, these operations take a couple of seconds, while for a beginner it is unusual to use a smartphone at first, largely due to the different keyboard. At first, it may be more convenient for you to simply scroll through the list of contacts, but if there are a lot of numbers in the smartphone’s memory, then it is better to resort to a search.
Scrolling your phone and apps
The smartphone comes with a number of pre-installed applications that give a lot of functionality to your phone.
To access these apps you will need to click on the app you want to use. For example, to set an alarm, look for an application with a clock image and click on it.
To take a photo, look for an application with a camera image, click on it, the camera will appear and there will be a round button on the screen, click on it for the photo to appear
To view all your photos, tap on the Gallery app.
All apps can be organized together on the home screen. To return to the home screen at any time, press the home button.
There will be too many apps on one screen, so you will need to scroll the screen to go to the next apps page to see all the apps on the phone. Don't forget that you can press the Home button at any time to return to the home screen
TRAIN ON YOUR MOM
“When we introduced complex technological procedures, I tested them on my mother,” Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin recently said at a meeting with Rostelecom President Mikhail Oseevsky. And he advised him to do the same when working on State Services.
And Mishustin tested digital tax services on his mother when he was head of the Federal Tax Service. Mom understands - it means the application is convenient. The right approach!
But not every application has its own Mishustin. My wife and I recently sat in line to get vaccinated against the damned Covid. And my grandfather came up to us and asked us to help him link a bank card in the mobile operator’s application so that the money would be debited automatically. It’s good that the line was long and we had enough time to understand the shaitan program. Even we, “confident users,” barely understood what was what.
Okay, paying for your cell phone with an automatic machine is a luxury. In the end, no one took away from us the sacred right to go to a phone shop and put money there. But there are also more serious problems. The same clinic, a month earlier. I’m standing at the information desk, in front of me is a woman of about eighty years old: “Make an appointment with a therapist!” The nurse on duty throws up her hands: everything is scheduled for two weeks in advance.
- What am I supposed to do? - Granny is perplexed.
“Try to sign up through State Services,” sounds predictable advice.
“I don’t have State Services...” the old woman answers no less predictably.
The unfortunate woman’s further fate is predetermined: going to the clinic once a day or more often and catching a window in the doctor’s schedule. By the way, just in case, I immediately went to State Services and saw that it was really impossible to make an appointment with a therapist. But when I opened the application a couple of hours later, I discovered that the doctor had a window available for tomorrow. And someone immediately booked it. It is clear that this was not the old woman from the queue.
We make appointments with doctors online, order food through apps, and monitor our children’s grades through electronic diaries. Digital services are cool: if 10 years ago, in order to apply for a foreign passport, I took a day off and stood in line at the passport office until sunrise, now I send the application online and then just pick up the document. But don’t you think that the locomotive of digitalization is moving away too quickly, and people of the older generation can only look after it in confusion?
Text messages and calls
Text messages
The text messaging app is called Messaging. The number of unread text messages you will have appears in numerical form, for example. The image below shows 1 unread message.
To open messages, tap on the application.
This will open your messages, then click on the name of the person whose message you want to read. Messages are in the form of a conversation, so you will see the entire history of correspondence with this person.
To send a message: Once you have opened a message from a contact, you can reply to it, there is a writing field at the bottom of the message. Touch this area and a keyboard will appear on the screen, allowing you to type your message. To send a message: click on the word.
Call
To make a call from your phone, find the phone icon and click on it.
Find the keyboard symbol and tap it, a number keyboard will appear.
Dial the number you want to call and click on the phone symbol.
This will make the call.
To call a contact you've saved on your phone: tap the phone symbol, tap Contacts, scroll up and down with your fingers until you find the name of the person you want to call. Click on his name and then on the phone symbol.
How to set up personalization
Having become familiar with how to use the Fly smartphone, a beginner will probably want to customize the device to his liking. Modern devices support customization based on many parameters. Once you enter the gallery, you can always set any image or photo as your desktop background. To do this, call the context menu and select “Set as – Desktop Background”.
The “Settings – Sound” menu allows you to adjust the volume and ringtone for calls and incoming messages, as well as the mode and intensity of vibration of the device. You can use both basic ringtones and download them from the Internet.
In addition, you can move frequently used applications to your desktop for ease of access. Just hold down the desired icon and drag it to the main screen. Many users like to group icons into folders based on their functionality. For example, you can collect all clients for social networks in one folder, games in another, third-party photo processing programs, etc.
Another popular feature for Android smartphones is widgets, which are also placed on the desktop. The widget can display news feeds from websites or your accounts on social networks, show the weather forecast, track fluctuations in currency rates, stock indices, etc.
Adding contacts
The easiest way to add a contact is to press the symbol on your phone as if you were making a call, then enter the number.
You should see a “+” or “Add to Contacts” sign, click on it and it will ask if it is a new or existing contact.
Select a new one and create a contact. Some phones will ask if you want to save the contact to your phone or SIM card. If you save to a SIM, you can easily move your contacts if you get a new phone. Enter the person's name and click on Save. You can also view your contacts using the contacts icon.
Keyboard
For the text entry part, you only need to explain a few simple things. Firstly, if you make a mistake, then autocorrect will correct the mistake, and at the top it will show which word it is. Secondly, it is not necessary to enter the entire word - just enter the first letters and then select one of the suggested words. And thirdly, tell us about going to the symbols and punctuation menu. It sounds simple, but all these things will have to be repeated several times for the parent to remember (“Why should I remember this? Do I have nothing better to do?”).
Mobile data
Phone plan
There are two main types of pricing plans;
You pay a certain amount per month, which includes a package of services such as Internet, minutes, SMS.
You use the services and then pay for the services used.
What uses the data?
The programs that use the most data are video and audio, such as Spotify or YouTube. If you have Wi-Fi at home, you can connect to the Internet. this will reduce the amount of data you use on your data plan.
Don't pay for data
If you don't pay for the data you use, you can sign in to Wi-Fi to access the Internet. on your phone. Wi-Fi is available in many cafes, public buildings and at home if you have broadband access.
Are you going abroad?
If you're going abroad, make sure you turn off data on your phone to avoid roaming charges. To do this, go to Settings
– Wireless networks and networks – Mobile networks – tap “Data on” and swipe. make sure there is no check mark in the box.
This may vary slightly on different phones. If in doubt, go to Google and look for how to properly disable data transfer on your phone.
Turning on your smartphone
Before using a smartphone on Android, a beginner needs to turn it on. The button is usually located on the top or side of the device, depending on the device model.
When you boot for the first time, you need to define the basic operating system settings. After selecting your language, you will be asked to create a Google account to which the device will be linked, or log into an existing profile. This can be postponed, however, it is better to do it right away, since a Google account is required to download applications, synchronize, use email and other functions.
Creating a Google profile takes just a few minutes: you need to come up with an email name, a strong password and fill out basic information about yourself. After this, you can proceed to further configuration of the smartphone.
We strongly advise you to accept the default backup options. This way, as a beginner, it will be easier for you to use your smartphone, because if it crashes, you won’t lose your saved data.
Wi-Fi connection.
Wi-Fi or wireless Internet access allows you to access the Internet without using mobile data. If you have broadband at home, you can also connect your smartphone to this internet signal.
To connect your smartphone to Wi-Fi: click on the Settings icon
This icon means that your device is connected to the network.
Make sure the Wi-Fi option is turned on, then select the desired Wi-Fi network to connect to and enter the password. If the word connected appears below the network name, then you are connected to Wi-Fi.
For some Wi-Fi networks, you will need a password.
At home, your wireless network name (SSID) is usually the name of your Internet Service Provider followed by some numbers, for example: eircom409781.
After you click on the wireless network name, you may be asked to enter a password. The name of the wireless network and password are written under your router and the password is usually called: WEP key or wireless key.
For public Wi-Fi locations such as libraries, hotels and cafes, some may require a password.
Battery charge
Another parameter that has to be controlled is the battery charge. If you use the device too actively, the battery consumption will be high. As a result, the smartphone will not last even 24 hours.
But there is no need to be upset. There are some simple tips on how you can easily save battery consumption:
- Reduce the brightness of colors on the display . The muted colors of the screen are not only beneficial to the eyes, but also require less energy.
- Disable Wi-Fi when not needed . Operation of this module quickly reduces battery charge.
- Close applications. All programs running in the background but not used by the user must be turned off and closed.
By applying these recommendations in practice, you will be able to extend the battery life, and therefore the operating time of your smartphone. To prevent the device from going out at the most necessary moment, you can rely on the approximate operating time indicated in the instruction manual or always carry a charging dock. Here are the parameters of the 4 most popular models:
| Smartphone | Battery life |
| Samsung Galaxy J7 | Games – 7 hours, video – up to 17 hours (3300 mAh) |
| Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X | Games – 8 hours, video – up to 18 hours (4100 mAh) |
| Lenovo Moto Z Play | Games – 8 hours, video – up to 17 hours (3500 mAh) |
| Asus Zenfone Pegasus 3 | Games – 8 hours, video – up to 13 hours (4100 mAh) |
Read the article on the topic: How to properly charge your smartphone. 5 Simple Tips to Help Extend Battery Life
Applications
Applications are shortcuts that take you directly to the site you are looking for. Many organizations and companies have their own applications.
To download the application you need to go to the Play Store. You need to log into the Play Store using your Gmail address, if you don’t have one, then you need to create one.
There are hundreds of different apps, some of which you have to pay for, but most of the most popular ones are free.
Here is a list of some apps that you may find useful
RTE Player: Watch missed programs on TV
Viber: free calls and messages with other viber users
WhatsApp: Free calls and messages with other WhatsApp users
Snapchat: Allows you to send and receive photos and videos.
Arouse interest
Before you begin the learning process, you should understand whether the elderly person is ready to use a smartphone.
“First you need to make sure whether there is a need and desire for a person to learn how to use a smartphone. Now the age has shifted so much that there are fewer and fewer elderly people. And not because life expectancy is decreasing, on the contrary, it is increasing. This is because people do not feel old. They simply moved into another passport dimension. Such people’s well-being has changed, and most importantly, their prospects have changed. Old age is the end of perspective. If a person has a desire to look into the future and be interested in new products, then it will be easy to teach him how to use a smartphone. But whether the person is old, young or a child, the main thing is that he feels the benefit in the learning process. In the good sense of the word. Therefore, there is no need to sit down grandparents and tell them that now you will teach them, thus emphasizing that they do not know anything. This must be done kindly, unobtrusively and gradually. For example, you can teach how to use your Sberbank personal account. There are people who receive a pension and their card is linked to the bank. This will be beneficial for a person, since he will not leave the house again,” says candidate of sociological sciences, psychologist Lyudmila Polyanova .
“Those who have experience communicating with older people know that this category of the population is full of fears, not because they somehow imposed them on themselves. In our society, unfortunately, there was no habit of taking care of ourselves, including taking care of ourselves psychologically. In fact, there is nothing difficult in teaching an elderly person. You just need to remove his fears and turn everything into a game. You need to arouse the interest of your relative and show the benefits that the gadget can bring. For example, show an elderly person that he can use a smartphone to order some things on the Internet, for example, medicines,” says psychologist at the Adult Development Center, trainer for development and goal achievement Svetlana Dyakonova .
Grandmother and computer. What prevents older people from mastering the Internet Read more
Other applications
Tune In Radio – radio from all over the world
Trip Planner - Public Transport Options
YouTube - watch videos on your phone
Skype – allows you to make free phone calls with video
Epicurious - Recipes
Pinterest - art and design
Solitare and Bridge apps
Instagram – for sharing photos
If you're concerned about how much data you're using, these apps will check your Data Usage for iPhone 3G Watchdog for Android. On phones with Windows Data Sense, this is a pre-installed application
Types of softphones
We said above that softphones can be proprietary or universal:
- branded - do not require complex settings, are already tailored to the operator, and automatically offer sufficient functionality;
- universal – suitable for several operators, developed by third-party developers, time-consuming and difficult to configure.
Among the universal applications, we note Zoiper and Linphone. Zoiper works with Telfin (it already contains the settings of this provider), Linphone is open source and has encryption. Branded softphones are the most convenient and do not foretell any difficulties when you first launch them. They are easy to configure and are completely tailored to the services of a specific operator. When working with Telfin, we recommend using a proprietary softphone.
The task was to reduce communication costs for employees working remotely or on the road. We connected IP telephony at minimal cost - now colleagues receive calls on their personal smartphones. Very convenient and economical, thank you!
Nadezhda Shapilov, commercial director of Photogenica
Extension number - what is it?
Let's start with a little background, or rather with a simple example. Let's say you make a call to technical support for a certain service. Initially, the operator or answering machine picks up the phone, after which you are asked for the reason for your call. Typically, on the smartphone keyboard you need to select a number used to contact a specific specialist. This is the extension number that you enter without even knowing it.
If you need to make several dozen calls every day, then constantly going through the same procedure is simply pointless. You can independently remember the identifier of a specific person in the company, and then independently enter the extension number from your mobile phone. This way we get rid of the answering machine and immediately contact the right specialist.
Examples of using an extension number on Android
Extension numbers are used by almost all companies that employ at least five people. The client can call a regular telephone, but either an operator or an answering machine will answer his call. In the first case, you don’t even have to press anything yourself; a technical department employee will automatically redirect you to the right specialist. And in the second, everything needs to be done manually.
For clarity, let's look at a simple example. Let's assume that one large company employs several dozen employees. Dmitry was assigned the identifier 203 , and Oksana - 104 . Now let's return to the official and only office phone number - +375295550505 . For an ordinary person to be able to call Oleg, all he needs to do is put a comma after the standard number and indicate the employee’s identifier. You will get something like this: +375295550505.203 .
And if the call is made from a landline within the company, that is, one employee calls another, then the main number does not need to be entered. You just need to dial the code of a specific employee, after which the call will be made automatically. This is the principle by which communication is carried out in more or less large offices.
Difference between extension and additional number
What is the difference between an extension and an additional number, because initially it may seem that these concepts are synonymous? In fact, the first term is the identifier of a specific employee in the company. It is added to the main phone and is used to ensure that the answering machine or real operator redirects the client to the right specialist.
As for the additional number, this is just another company phone number that you can also call. For example, one office has both a mobile and landline number for communication. And in this case, special codes designed to communicate with specific employees can also be used. If you go to the official website of a company, then in the contacts section you will be able to see the main and even several additional telephone numbers.
Additional codes for contacts
If necessary, numbers with extension codes can be entered into the phone book of the smartphone. The application perceives them perfectly, and no problems should arise when making a call. You can specify the names of employees, and then add their IDs to the main company number. In this case, you can communicate even without access to a landline phone.
Moreover, it is possible to add into contacts not only people from the same office, but also from different departments. Let's assume that you often resolve issues with a certain bank employee who has his own unique code. But at the same time, periodically call the credit institution, and again, call a specific person. For convenience, you can easily add these people to your phone book.
How to use an extension number
Entering an extension number on a smartphone is no more difficult than doing it from a home phone. But before that, you definitely need to know which department you plan to call. You can clarify this information on the company’s official website, if available. Then there are two options:
- Manual dialing is a method when you initially dial the main number of an organization, wait to be contacted by a live operator or answering machine, and only then switch to the desired employee. This option requires time, which is not always convenient, especially when making a huge number of calls.
- Automatic dialing is a method when communication is carried out without the participation of third-party tools. Simply put, you initially indicate the company number, but with a special identifier for a specific office or employee. Additional elements to skip the autoresponder (comma or semicolon) are also used.
As you can see, the principle of using an extension number is standard. Remember that this is simply a code for a specific department or employee within one organization. And if the company is small, then it may not use unique identifiers at all - each employee simply has his own personal mobile phone.
