It's nice that people are reaching out & checking in on each other, of course. BUT, sometimes, it's a bit of overload. My phone keeps dinging & pinging with notifications & I'm seriously considering turning some of them off, or muting them for a while. It wears on you after a while...!
One case in point on this front: Dh's cousins have long had an on-again-off-again group chat going on Facebook Messenger. But now one cousin in Italy asked if we could set up a group on WhatsApp (which apparently they all use in Europe?)... and now everyone is moving over there. I REEEEAAAALLY didn't want to have to download (& learn) another app... besides Messenger, I also have regular texting (which the cousins on the other side of dh's family seem to prefer using) -- not to mention good old-fashioned email, lol. My phone is running short on space as it is (I have -- cough cough -- five news apps and several reading apps on my phone that take up a lot of space -- not to mention all my pictures, lol). I am constantly clearing my cache, and I've had to delete a couple of other less-used apps lately just to keep the phone running smoothly!
But I felt like I didn't have much choice, if I want to stay connected. :p (And Lord knows, as an older, retired, childless woman, I felt kind of isolated even before all this began...!)
But I felt like I didn't have much choice, if I want to stay connected. :p (And Lord knows, as an older, retired, childless woman, I felt kind of isolated even before all this began...!)
Likewise, video calling/conferencing: my phone is an Android, so I don't have Facetime, which is exclusive to Apple iPhones. But there's an app called Duo on my phone (that I've never used) that I understand is similar. I think both Messenger and WhatsApp have video calling capabilities too? I have Skype on my laptop (but not my phone -- at least not yet...)(my parents & I used to talk on it a lot, although we haven't used it much recently). I have Zoom on both my phone & laptop, which lots of CNBCers have been using for webinars & video chats over the past year.
And then this week, a group of friends decided they wanted to chat with an app called House Party, so I had to download THAT to my phone. (There's a limit of 8 people per call on that one, though.)
Seriously, how many communication apps do we all need?? Can't we all just pick one or two & stick to those??
(Rant over...!)
(Rant over...!)
Which texting/conferencing apps do you use/prefer?
Yes, both Messenger and Whatsapp have video-calling capabilities. I only ever Skype on my laptop (though I think I have it on my phone just in case), and Zoom works much better on the laptop too (apparently - I had my first Zoom meeting yesterday). It's too awkward doing that on my phone!
ReplyDeleteFortunately, last year I bought a new phone, because my old one (even though it was only a couple of years old) kept running out of space. I now have 128 GBs and heaps of room, and I love feeling free to download new apps.
I use whatsapp with some friends and the Asian part of the family. It's very popular in Asia too. I've assigned a notification sound that is so quiet, I only hear it if I have my phone right beside me. Otherwise yes, the beeps can all drive me crazy! I have different sounds for each app. Then I can decide whether to look straight away or not. And I've refused notifications on a lot of them too, or only allow them to come up on my phone when I turn it on.
HouseParty seems to have really kicked off at the moment - though I don't understand how it is any different to Skype or Zoom.
I have made a mental note that next time I trade in my phone, I need to ask for more space with the next one!
DeleteMy understanding re: Houseparty is that it's limited to 8 people, and also that you can play games on it?
I don't know anything about it! I'm sticking to Skype (which I've been using for years and years), Zoom (which is new to me), and whatsapp and messenger. (I video-called my sister yesterday on whatsapp - it was perfect to have a catch up with my niece. I haven't seen her for six months, and don't know when I'll see her again.)
DeleteOn the bright side, the difference in space between my two phones, after only two years, was huge. And my second phone was cheaper than the first. And don't be fooled with the offer of adding supplemental space with an SD card - I thought that would work with the first phone, but it was only good for storing photos, not new apps.
My sister's wife asked us to download Houseparty so we could all join up for my sister's birthday today. I downloaded it, and then decided I was not interested in giving some random app my information. Maybe we'll call. Maybe the text I will send later and the message I put on her FB wall will suffice.
ReplyDeleteI can, however, recommend clearing all your photos off your phone and putting them onto your laptop (and possibly a DVD or external hard drive). Android makes it pretty easy to select a few photos that you like to look at frequently and leave them on your phone, while deleting the rest (after you've saved them elsewhere). My current phone saves all the photos to the Google cloud, which I hate. But I can download them to my laptop, so it's not terrible. It reminds me to clean them up every now and then too.
Also, you can check to see if your phone has a place to add a micro-SD card, so you can save all your photos to a separate drive. It frees up phone space for apps. I've found that I can't survive with less than 32GB of space - I use at least half of that just for apps.
Yes, my phone automatically backs up photos to Google Photos -- and I back up my photos to my laptop regularly (& I back up my laptop, albeit not as often as I should...!). I am paranoid about losing my photos (especially since everything is now digital), so I figure the more backups, the better, lol.
DeleteI checked and my phone is 16GB... half of what you have and positively minuscule next to Mali's phone! lol -- so I guess I should ask for a model with more storage capacity next time I trade up! I am constantly having to clear my cache, but it generally never gets below 80% capacity these days & is often over 90% within a day or two's usage... and that's after I deleted some apps (which I would have preferred to keep, but...). A techie I am not... ;)