Is There a Simple Way to Video Chat With My Elderly Parents?
The pandemic has been rough on everyone, especially when it comes to maintaining connection with the people we love. Luckily, technology allows us to maintain these connections in all sorts of useful ways, such as chats, game nights, and video calls. However, it can be especially challenging when you’re trying to stay in touch with someone who isn’t as technologically savvy or is otherwise limited because of age or circumstance.
The Challenges of Senior Care Communication
Whatever technological setup you’re going to use to connect to your mom is going to have to be something that’s absurdly easy to operate. Since the senior-care facility workers won’t mess with a device for you, and will only really plug it in, we have to rule out any kind of laptop-based setup. Someone would have to turn those on, after all, and if something goes wrong with any of these devices, the facility workers would have to help troubleshoot, which it sounds like they wouldn’t be comfortable doing. You could set up and angle a smartphone to face your mom and just dial in to that, but that’s an awfully small picture for your mom to deal with.
The Smart Display Solution
I think there’s an even better solution: purchase a smart display for your mom. (I like Google’s Nest Hub Max.) Smart displays are pretty foolproof. Once you plug one in and set it up, it’s going to be fairly self-sufficient; it’ll update itself as needed, reconnect to the internet if it ever goes down, and the most troubleshooting it’ll probably ever need is a quick unplug and plugging back in. That fits exactly what the facility workers would be able to do, should the need arise.
Comparison of Device Options
| Device Type | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Laptop | Large screen | Someone would have to turn those on; needs troubleshooting. |
| Smartphone | Portable | Awfully small picture for your mom to deal with. |
| Smart Display | Pretty foolproof and self-sufficient. | Requires initial setup on facility wifi. |
Setup and Configuration
When you go to set up the smart display before dropping it off at your mom’s facility, you’ll need to have some kind of phone number to associate with it—well, with Google Duo, technically. You’ll probably want to make a new, dummy Google account for all of this, append a Google Voice phone number, and then add your primary Google account as a member of the household (so you can control the smart display from afar). Also, maybe as part of the drop-off process, you can plug the display in near enough to the facility that you’ll be able to set it up on their wifi.
Methods to Launch Video Chats
You then have two options to launch video chats—assuming your mom isn’t capable of answering them herself:
- Google Duo Routine: You can make a routine in the Google Home app for your mom’s account that calls your personal phone number (or whatever number you use with Google Duo) when activated.
- Built-in Camera: You can also use the built-in “Camera” feature within the Google Home app to pull up a live feed from the smart display (and talk to it).
I like the Google Duo approach myself, as I think it’s a more elegant solution. It might seem a little backwards to use a separate device to initiate a call from your mother’s smart display, but that’s the best solution for far-away family members.