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Unique help/requirements needed to video call

upnorthisbest

upnorthisbest

Lurker
Hi. My mom is a senior with very poor dexterity and motor controls (hands). I'm awaiting a sim card to reactivate her phone, and am stuck to just wifi in the meantime. When the phone works, I have large 2x2 direct dial widgets setup and the LG phone defaults to speaker. This allows the phone to remain stuck to a bed side table via velcro. She double taps the screen to turn it on, swipes to unlock, then single taps the large widget to call.
However, I won't have the sim for a few more days. In the meantime, I am trying to find a video chat app that can offer similar functionality. It could also be completed with a short cut app. Be creative! I've been searching quite a bit and have not found a great solution.

Must have:
- One touch video chat start from home screen.
- App must not require a phone number, email only

Very nice to have:
- large 2x2 or larger widget to initiate the video chat from home screen.

Many thanks if you can help. This has been far more complicated to accomplish than I thought it would.
 
good luck finding those specific requirements. i found a few video calling apps, but they do not have a widget associated with it.

instead of a widget, can you just have only one shortcut on the homescreen pointing to the calling app? tap that top open and then tap a contact to call and make a video chat?
 
ocnbrze said:
good luck finding those specific requirements. i found a few video calling apps, but they do not have a widget associated with it.

instead of a widget, can you just have only one shortcut on the homescreen pointing to the calling app? tap that top open and then tap a contact to call and make a video chat?
Click to expand...

Thanks, but too many steps for bad eyes and poor control of hands.
There was an article I found for a shortcut app that could launch a direct call for Hangouts (I think) but that shortcut app doesn't exist anymore. I haven't found one that allows similar commands. I also found a lack of widget offerings for the most popular chat apps.
 
So taking into account your Mom's dexterity and eyesight issues this is something of a challenging project. Getting a video chat app that isn't tied to a phone number is an important point, plus getting it set up to activate with a minimum of interaction on your Mom's part is another.
This does NOT fit your requirements (being based on using Google's phone-number-based Duo app) but if you do find a viable app that meets your stated needs perhaps you can incorporate Google Voice Assistant into the mix.
https://assistant.google.com/learn/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Assistant
I don't know if she'd be comfortable or able to utilize voice commands instead of having to use the touch interface for everything, but with Google Assistant enabled, if she said, "video call upnorthisbest" that would automatically initiate a video chat using Duo.
The initial set up on your part being the substitution of the Duo app with whatever app you might find appropriate.

As an aside, you mentioned her using a double-tap to wake the phone and then a swipe to unlock it. Just to eliminate one step, if you go into the Settings >> Security >> Screen lock menu is there an option available for 'None'? Disabling the swipe would result in her just needing to use double-tap to wake the phone. (Depending on what version of Android and how much LG altered the Settings menu that option might be greyed out and/or in a different menu.)
 
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