What has your smart phone done for you, that your regular old cell couldn't?

There is no right or wrong answer with this question, I simply want to know why or how it has made your life so much better.
Maybe this is baby steps for me, and opening my mind up, but just a little, and please DO NOT push them on me,I just want to know what they have done for you and why you would never go back to an old cell phone again.

On my commute I can see when trains and buses are arriving.

Driving I can use it for maps and directions.

When I have downtime, for example waiting in a doctor’s office, it has much of the functionality of a computer. I use it for email, web browsing, research, etc.

It’s replaced my cameras for most purposes.

Texting is much improved over a flip phone. I can search my old texts, and I have the same text history available on my phone, computer, and tablet.

Well, I could still live without it, but it’s nice having a portable computer at my fingertips.

I especially like the GPS feature. It talks to you just like the GPS in a car.

I tend to look up actors and actresses in shows. Research a little and it’s nice to be able to do that as I’m watching the show, instead of getting up and leaving the room to go to my desk top.

As CallMeJay said, texting is much easier. Still not as easy as typing on a key board, though.

It’s just made life more convenient, not necessarily better. Certainly not so much better.

My smart phone was invaluable in navigating unfamiliar European cities last year. Combining GPS with mapping information made it easy.

For me, it comes down to being organized and efficient. I work two, sometimes three jobs, have family responsibilities, am very involved with my daughter’s schooling, and my wife is the opposite of organized.

Shared calendars, reminders, to-do lists, address book, cloud storage, and document editing tools are essential in staying organized and getting stuff done with other people (my wife, daughter, and my students). Plus, all these functions and apps are synced accross my computer and iPad too.

It touches so much of my life, it’s hard to describe.

I can access all information known to humans. It’s literally right there in the palm of my hand.

I check to see when the next bus is coming.

I look up restaurants in my area and view their menus to decide what to eat for lunch by comparing extensive reviews.

I chat with friends either orally or in writing.

I check the traffic for my commute home.

I read Facebook with its 2 billion members.

I ask a question and get answers from thousands of experts. Sometimes from the leading expert in the field.

I call or write my elected officials.

I watch full-length movies. (Actually, I do that on my tablet not the phone, but it’s possible.)

I keep my schedule on it, and it gives me reminders of appointments.

I deposit checks directly to my bank account without ever setting foot in my bank, saving my time and gas and resultant pollution.

I send money to my children without ever mailing a check.

I read full-length books. (Again, that’s not completely true. I read on a Kindle, but I have the Kindle app on my phone. If I wanted, I could open any book I have and begin exactly where I left off on another device.)

I entertain myself. There are games, movies, short videos, cartoons, newspapers, magazines, etc. It’s endless.

I use the camera to save images I want to remember. It’s a fantastic camera, too, and the phone automatically uploads the photo to my cloud storage, which I can access from any device with internet access.

I use an app for keeping notes that has so much in it, I would be lost without it.

I use my phone to access my library of every document I’ve ever saved on any computer. It’s all there in my cloud storage.

I pay all my bills. I have not mailed a payment for a bill in many years.

I shop for needed items, and they are delivered to my home.

I read the news as it happens.

It translates foreign languages for me.

If my car breaks down, AAA will find me from the phone’s GPS signal.

It is my clock for all uses.

I don’t use my phone for half of what other people do. In fact, I left it home today and I was running a little late, so I opted not to return home to get it. I’ll get it later, before I go shopping. Now, at work, I have the internet and I have the work phone so I’m ok.

I use my phone mainly for the camera, texting, accessing the internet (FB, Fluther, checking movie times, store hours, addresses are just a few uses I can think of offhand).

Rarely for calling and I know the actual phone part is something that the flip phone does like a smart phone does.

I do like accessing the call log so I can pull up a number via the date called or date received.

I like the convenience of uploading photos and videos to Facebook.

I also use it for Shazam, when I hear a song that I like.

I don’t play games, I don’t read books on it, I don’t use it for banking, I don’t use it for the calendar. If I had the phone in front of me, I’d probably figure out a few more things I do use it for, but as I said, I left it home today, by accident.

My wife and daughter, even one of my granddaughters (17) have those fancy shmancy smart phones, they can have ‘em. They can have the monthly bill too. I get by with my old cheapo, buy as you fly flip open. But there’s a reason for it. We we vacationing up in Montana and the Dakotas some years ago, and my daughter and her hubby were trying to call friends in Texas, and my wife was trying to call down to check on our son, who had opted not to go. Long story short, none of them could get out, I suppose because we were in the mountains. I popped out Old Faithful, made the calls, let them have their talk fest on my phone. I’d rather have something I can depend on in a bind, and you folks can keep you bells and whistles. Having a phone that can tell me what stars were featured in which movie, ain’t worth a nickel if I have an emergency and I can’t get out.

LOL, I love your answer @NomoreY_A .
As you know I have a flip as well and it serves ALL my needs, but people just LOVE their smart phones and really wanted to know why and I respect all their answers.

Indeed sir, I respect all these folks and they are certainly entitled to their high tech phones. But I’m sticking with my old flip top, thank ya kindly ; )

How do you send money via phone @Hawaii_Jake???

I didn’t get my smart phone until about a year ago. Flip was good enough for me. People assumed it was because I couldn’t master the technology. Pssshhht.

@Dutchess_III LOL – wait till you get up in the Rockies or out in the boonies somewhere, and they can see what technology is all about. I’d rather have a plan and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Here is an illustration of what the smartphone replaces.

@Dutchess_III There are apps to send money. Venmo, Square Cash, and Google Wallet are the most popular, but you can even do it on Facebook.

@NomoreY_A Your story about having a signal only illustrates that the company you bought your phone service from had towers in the area. If you’re family members’ phones used different providers, then that company had no towers. If you all used the same provider, then there’s a real difference in the physical phone’s ability to access the signal. I would also like to know how many years ago that was.

@Hawaii_Jake Let me think, Jake – I’m getting old and senile bud – must have been about 2010 or 2011, I had just retired from my Plant Safety job of 26 years, and figured I’d treat the family to a road trip. But there have been instances even recently when my wife and I are out in the boonies between towns, and she has problems while I can call anywhere. I will be sticking with Old Faithful for life.

@NomoreY_A: Not trying to convince you of changing your phone or your provider, but just a thought that maybe your wife’s phone has something wrong with it, if she has trouble getting signals, as long as other variables are the same (provider).

She has a different provider, not sure who it is, I avoid her phone like the plague. But 9 times out of 10 if we go out we’re together, so no biggie. If her phone flops, I always have mine. And my daughter in law has the same issues with her smart phone. Go figure.

It sounds like your wife cell provider doesn’t have the coverage yours does @NomoreY_A and if it is viable and wants the same coverage she should switch providers.

@SQUEEKY2 Either that, or toss that high tech piece of crap with it’s fold out pool table and built in rotating bar and get a flip open like mine. It takes a lickin’ but keeps on tickin’.

The coverage area of the provider has utterly nothing to do with the phone. Nothing.

@NomoreY_A It may be that your phone is / was running on analog, not digital. Analog signals do travel further, but analog signals can’t do what digital signals can do. Also, people with radios can tap into your phone calls when you’re on analog!

@SQUEEKY2 All providers have roaming agreements with all the other providers. This allows you to use the towers provided by other providers. If you ever wonder which provider you’re using when you’re outside your “home” area, dial *611. That will connect you to that which ever provider you’re using at the moment.

@Hawaii_Jake is right. Anyone remember the good old days when we were charged for roaming? Any one wonder what happened to those charges?

@NomoreY_A You do not have to convince me that flip is the way, I love mine, I wanted peoples opinions of their smart phones, I have a friend that has been badgering me for years to get one,now he wants to give me his old iPhone 4 I don’t want it.
I do not like texting as a form of communicating for quick notes it’s ok.
I have zero desire to go on line with it.
The only form of social thing I do on line is fluther and it can wait till I get home.
In fact anything on line can wait till I get home.
I agree a smart phone can and will do a shit load of things a flip can’t but does that matter if you have no plans to use any of that magical stuff in the first place?
I thank everyone for your answers and great that your smart phone does everything you want, still hasn’t convinced me to change but glad you love yours.

Actually, I just called my provider. You can no longer switch phones from digital to analog. It’s all 100% digital now.

As to why the flip got out and the smart phones didn’t? You’d have to call you provider and ask. I’m interested in the answer.

I’m a fan of having no cell phone, or just a flip phone, but I will admit that I have found use in a smart phone for several things:

* I have one because I develop software and so need one to learn how they work and test software on.

* It has a GPS and programs which are useful for navigating while driving, and others useful when hiking in the woods.

* It has a much better camera than my flip phone, and a vast amount of storage which I use for pictures, video, and audio recordings.

* I have a cool sound recorder app which I use to make audio recordings, particularly with the feature that records only when there’s sound, which is great for recording dreams.

* It plays games, even though most of them (censored) stink.

* I use the pedometer and a health app to track how much walking during the day, which is a habit game that helps give me feedback for getting exercise.

* I can deposit checks into my bank account with it, meaning I don’t need to go to an ATM to deposit checks.

* I can check & send email on it, which I could do on the flip phone but didn’t because it was annoying to do on the flip phone.

* I use the Buycott app, which lets me scan UPC symbols in stores and see how evil the product’s corporation is according to the causes I support, so I can avoid giving money to companies involved in nasty business and instead give it to more ethical companies.

* I can waste time on Imgur and the Internet (which again I could do on a flip phone, but it’s much easier / better on the smartphone).

* I can use it as an iPod to listen to music.

* Mine has a stylus so I can draw pictures and take notes about like I would in a paper notepad.

* I use the flashlight function.

* I use the Parkopedia app to find good parking places in annoying cities.

* I’ve used the TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Google Maps apps to find nearby places and businesses while traveling, without having to research them in advance.

When I got my phone my number one requirement was a good phone. I have retired my 35 mm. I miss it but the phone takes pics that are just as good.

Today is a particularly great day for me to answer this question. I went by myself to an out-of-state protest today, and I absolutely could not and would not have done it without my smart phone. Here are the things it did for me just today:

- I bought an Amtrak ticket online a few days ago to ensure there would be a seat for me on the train. I received an “e-ticket” that the conductor was able to scan straight from my cell phone screen using the Amtrak app. Since I don’t have a working printer, this saved me a trip to go to a public library or something to print out my ticket.

- During my train ride, I used the Slack app on my phone to stay connected with the other protestors I was planning to meet up with. We did not have to exchange phone numbers or any other personal information with each other because we were connected via this app.

- Also during the train ride, I perused the Google Maps app on my phone to scope out a restaurant near the site of the protest for me to grab a bite to eat before things started. This was helpful because I’m not familiar with the city I was going to.

- After I got off the train, I had to walk 2 miles to get to the park where I was meeting up with the other protestors. I have never been to this city before, so without my cell phone GPS I would have needed paper maps I guess in order to find my way there.

- During lunch I sent texts to my mom and boyfriend who were both worrying about me, to let them know I had arrived safely. I appreciated being able to send a text rather than make a call, because my boyfriend was at work today. He wanted frequent updates to quell his worries, but would not have been able to take so many calls at work.

- I then walked to the park and used the Slack app again to let the other protestors know what I was wearing so that they’d be able to spot me when they arrived.

- During the protest, I used Facebook Live to livestream events as they occurred. This provided video documentation that was immediately delivered to my Facebook page, meaning that if anything had happened to me during the protest, the evidence of that would not only be captured on video but would already be uploaded to the web. And the livestream also helped drum up awareness of the protest! Livestreams from protests are sometimes incorporated into TV news stories.

- I rode home from the protest with another Boston native who had attended. Before leaving, we had a stop to make, and since neither of us was familiar with the city we were in, we used Google Maps / GPS to navigate there.

- All day long, I was able to relax with the knowledge that if I got stranded anywhere, I could use the Uber app to request a cab to come pick me up. If I needed anything at all, like the number to a local cab service, directions to an urgent care clinic, or a phone number to a local hotel, I had access to the internet to find the information I needed. If my ride home had fallen through for any reason, I would have had to stay the night and catch the morning train home. I could have used the Air Bnb app to find cheaper lodging than a hotel. I could have used the Amtrak app again to buy a ticket home.

I would not have felt safe attending this event without my phone! I would have stayed home instead of taking the opportunity to tell nearby Senators my views on current affairs.

I can finally use one device for most anything. It’s been a game changer.

Mariah’s comment about texting her boyfriend reminds me of one of the many benefits of texting. Some say phone calls are better and if I’m not worth a call then we shouldn’t be friends (I think @SQUEEKY2 said that the other day on his other cell phone question). However, not everybody wants to be on the phone either. Sometimes we’re at work, sometimes we’re in a situation where being on the phone would be inappropriate, sometimes we’re in a big hurry and dialing a phone, waiting for the connection, waiting for the ringing and for the person to answer is just too time consuming. Texting is way quicker and requires less energy.

- More choices of web browsers. I could only use Opera on the old phone.
– More choices of keyboard for different languages.
– Better control on memory space.
– Various apps for different purposes.
– The smartphone just runs things faster.

I have not yet read the other answers, will do so after posting.

I went straight from a very old type of cell phone that was only used for emergencies, to an iphone. I rarely used it. You could text, but it was the old kind of texting where you had to push buttons multiple times to get the letter you wanted, and you couldn’t add photos. I never used it for texting, because I was unfamiliar with it, until right before I switched to an iphone. You couldn’t take photos either. And it had no internet access. The only reason I used it was for emergency phone calls. I paid $100 per year to have a very limited amount of minutes, but I never went over, because I hardly ever used the phone.

My current phone is an iphone 6. I pay $20 a month for unlimited calls and texts, because I am on my friend’s Friends and Family Account.

My regular camera (not a phone) crapped out the week before I got my iphone. One of my friends told me not to bother to get the camera fixed, because the iphone has a terrific camera for my use. He was right. I take tons of pictures, and I can immediately upload them to Facebook and my photo storing site. I take hundreds of photos each month.

I text 3 close friends on a daily basis, and about 6 other people on an occasional basis. Texting on an iphone is a million times better and easier than on my old style phone (the old phone predates even the flip phones, so I don’t know what those are like). On my old phone I never texted. Now I text these 3 friends on a daily basis. It has brought us much closer, because before I did text, it wouldn’t have occurred to me to call these people every day, or to text them multiple times per day. We all work and have things going on, but texting has become a really important thing for me, because 2 of these friends, in the last year have had some serious medical situations, and one of them lives 2 hours away. Both of them were in the hospital. First, I was able to find out immediately what had happened. Then I was able to immediately text other people that needed to know. I could copy and paste, so I didn’t need to have long winded conversations with the other people over multiple phone conversations. I was able to get to the hospital as soon as I could. Then, when I was at the hospital, I was able to update everyone by text, and send them pictures, to let them know that my friends were OK at certain points in time, instead of having to make multiple phone calls. It was a blessing to be able to do all of that instantly.

The fact that I have the internet at my fingertips is delightful. Whenever I need to look something up, whether it’s a phone number, an address, or whether there are any vegetarian restaurants in the area where I am, or where I’m headed, it’s very convenient. As a vegetarian, I can’t always hope that there will be someplace I can get some food if I’m traveling around. Having the internet on my phone makes all sorts of things a million times easier.

Having GPS. This is one of the best things in the world. I use an app called WAZE, and it has been the difference of spending a half hour pouring over a Thomas Guide map (remember those folks?) to spending 10 seconds typing in an address and having WAZE navigate my way there, including going around the traffic, if there is a problem.

Music, you can store music in your phone, and you can use the internet to play music from Youtube. Yay!

When I’m sitting in a waiting room, I can look at Fluther and Facebook, or edit my photographs, or look up recipes, or figure out where I’m going to go for lunch, or where I can get the necessary stuff for the patient that is in the doctor’s office or hospital.

Did I mention texting? I text 3 friends every day. We check up on each other, make sure we got home safely, ask if anyone needs anything from the store, share pictures of our family doing stuff, pictures of cats, pictures of all sorts of things. It’s also easier to keep track of things, especially if you are going to an event or planning a trip with people, because it keeps a record of what you were discussing. I find that very helpful.

Also, if I’m connected to wifi, I can watch Netflix, so that’s pretty cool.

I also use my phone as a phone. I never made a lot of phone calls before, and I still don’t. But the other things my phone does are things that have made my life easier, more pleasant, less stressful, and more fun.

I do have a laptop, which I prefer for Fluther, because I need a regular keyboard for my long-winded, detailed answers, but I do not have any other type of device, such as an ipad or tablet or kindle or any of that stuff. I read real books, I don’t find it pleasant to read books on a computer type of device.

A friend asked me if I had buyer’s remorse after I bought my iphone. I said, “Hell no!”

If society wasn’t built around financial success being pivotal in ones happiness, I wouldn’t even care about owning a phone, but alas, here we are.

While traveling I get a Google alert for traffic incidents like lane blockage, accidents, ramp closures, bridges out from flooding. I can pull over and get a detour route. Which I’ve done eight times in the last year.

One incident was twelve miles of stopped traffic, with 50 minutes or more of delay.

I’m still old school with land lines. Maybe some day I’ll get a phart smone.

Most of what I would answer that might apply to the OP is written already. The other reasons I like my smartphone are things that probably wouldn’t matter to the OP.

Like, I use an app for free texting and calling to Europe.

I can receive emails even when I’m out. Most don’t need immediate answers, so it’s not a big deal, but sometimes it’s work so it’s good I can respond quickly. I can do some of my work while enjoying myself at the pool, or at a restaurant, and I don’t need to have a computer with me. Most people I work with are in Europe and Asia, so working at odd hours isn’t usual for me.

I can bring my zumba music with me for when I help teach a class.

I can text when something comes into my head, instead of having to remember it later.

I can send a photo via messaging.

I can see client information if my husband needs something about a customer of ours in the middle of the day.

GPS is usually as easy as touching the address on a website or touching the address sent to me by a friend, I don’t need to enter anything.

I have the APP for where I live at my fingertips so I can see the entertainment and clubs around town. It changes daily.

I don’t use my phone so much at home. We have very bad reception here. However, I do when I’m out of the house and especially when I’m travelling.

We are going on a road trip in a few weeks, I’ve already downloaded apps that provide maps of the area we will visit. That will show us where the nearest caravan parks are (with user ratings and info about what’s there) so we can park up each night, where there are public toilets, what we should look out for on the road – local spots of interest, shops, petrol stations and alert us to problems.

When we did our last Australian roadtrip, I found an app that showed all the birds in a region with their bird calls. There are apps for flora and fauna for different regions too.

I’ve got apps on my phone that help me with my photography. You can get apps that calculate the exposure times in specific situations, There is an app called The Photographer’s Ephemeris that helps you plan outdoor shoots and gives you the time for sunset and sunrise and so on.

I mentioned a heap of other uses in your other thread.

I watch Netflix on my phone when I’m out and bored. I read the news. I interact via Fluther.

I don’t use my phone for banking or other financial transactions. I know I could do this, but I don’t like having information about my bank accounts etc. on my phone.

I do use it for trip planning. To make packing lists and things. I often think of things I need to take away with me while I’m out and about so I have a packing list on my phone.

I share shopping lists and to-do lists with my husband.

Another advantage of the smart phone mentioned by others above is being able to photograph something and then text it to someone. For example, while shopping, if I want to say “Look what I found” or “is this the one you were talking about.” There are so many possible circumstances for why I’d like to photograph something and then text it to someone, too many to list. A train schedule, a license plate, a car issue, the list goes on.

One more advantage to texting over calling is that when I consider calling someone, I’m thinking about whether it’s convenient for me and also whether it’s convenient for them. Am I at work? Are they at work? Am I tired now? Are they going to be asleep now. Are they at church or might they be running some after work errands now? A good friend of mine loves phone calls, but she’s a night owl and I’m often up early on weekends. Between that and our running around and her going to church and whatever else she does, it’s hard to plan to have a phone call. Plus to me it takes a lot of energy for a half hour phone call, whereas several texts back and forth is fun and easy.

More answers to the OP’s question are listed in the responses to his question from a few days ago: https://www.fluther.com/201912/how-do-you-politely-decline-a-gift-from-a-close-friend/

@jca and I am OK with a quick text message such do you have time for a call?
Can you talk now?
We will be late.
can’t talk now.
That sort of thing I still do not like text as a form of communicating, and I still say if all I am worth is a text conversation to you then take me off your call list.
For those of you that love tacking away on your micro key boards have at it, just please don’t do it driving, or where you take a chance of hurting yourself or others.
And I say that from witnessing pretty stupid things people have done while their thumbs are blazing away.

Also @jca I can take a photo with my flip and send it to anyone with a flip or smart phone, can and have done that.
But that isn’t the question and again I do thank people for their answers, some are quite interesting the smart phone can do an amazing amount of things, and some of those features do intrigue me, I DON’T THINK ENOUGH to get a smart phone but still.
And texting isn’t one of those features.

I was able to take pics with my flip too. I could send to other phones and email too. It just wasn’t nearly as easy. And the quality was horrible.

And I disagree with those who say texting a person means they aren’t important to you. My kids and I text all the time. Texts are just quicker, shorter, easier and can be answered at one’s leisure, where as a phone call requires some introduction and some small talk and both people pretty much stopping whatever they’re doing to talk.
My son texted me today, “Can I borrow your cooler?”
I wasn’t home and couldn’t get to the phone right away so I checked it about 20 minutes later.
I said, “Of course. You coming over now?”
He said, “Nope, already came about 2 ish and stole it!”
I said, “An honest thief. How nice!”
And that was all.

@SQUEEKY2 Stupid drivers are stupid drivers with or without cell phones.

One word: porn.

Aah so that’s where you’ve been @bob_. Porn addiction has kept you away. And I thought it was a sandwich issue.

@Dutchess_III My provider is Net 10 and they are worse than useless as far as getting info. Even dialing 411 is a pain in the ass, you get some one in India or Latin America (Outsourcing) after dealing with auto answer for 30 minutes. Name the city and state, or say, business. Name the business. ” O’reilly auto parts”. OK, you said Riley’s bar, is that correct? If not punch 89 or say , operator. (All I know is it worked in the mountains, and I’m not pushing my luck).

That has nothing to do with your provider. I assume Net 10 is a small provider. A small company that doesn’t own towers. They have an agreement with one of the big guys…Sprint or Verizon or someone and they use their towers. Call 611 and tell me who picks up.

Will get with you on that asap , my son just walked out with my dang phone.

“Thank you for calling Net 10”. There ya go. @Dutchess_III

K. Your ESN is tied to them and you’re in the home area. I’ll go research.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TracFone_Wireless.
There you go. They use the big guy’s networks. Net 10 is a a subsidy of TracFone.

I will not deny that a smart phone can do an amazing amount of things, they are a mini computer you take every where.
Let me tell you what I witness almost every day when it comes to smart phones.
People ignoring the people they are with to stay connected to the people they are not with.
See that almost every where in malls, restaurants, and so on.
People using them while driving.
see that quite often as well.
People not paying attention while texting on them walking into things, out into traffic and so on.
I also hear people getting charged up the yahoo for data fees.
So for the few of us that simply want a cell phone to be just that, a PHONE!
Let us have our cell phones that are just cell phones.
But again thank you for your answers, but when I hear things like I couldn’t live without it, makes me back away even further from wanting one.
But for someone that greatly dislikes texting, doesn’t Facebook, twitter, snap chat, or anything like it, for some who has no problem waiting till they get home to check emails or surf the web, maybe now you can understand why I want nothing to do with a smart phone.
But again thanks for your answers, they are quite an amazing device, but I don’t want in on the addiction ,er magic quite yet or anytime in the near future.

Yes. People allow themselves to get lost in their phones, and I hate that. It is the epitome of rudeness.
I refuse to let myself do that.
Just like getting fat, people choose what to eat, and they choose how to use their phone. If they wreck their car because of it, it’s no one’s fault but their own.