How to (Remotely) Help Your Family Members With Their New Technologies
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If you’re someone who regularly follows technology news online, you probably know what it means to be a “techie” to your friends and family. It’s likely that people will contact you for technical support, and being the good person you are, you try your best to help them. This can be a fun get-together if you live close to your loved ones, but not everyone has this privilege, leading to all sorts of frustrating calls when you have to troubleshoot your friends and family’s gadgets remotely. Luckily, these days you have a lot more options than just sighing on your phone.
Tell them about technical problems via video call.
If at all possible, do not rely on a simple phone call to resolve technical problems. It may be natural for someone to call you with their questions, but if you voice your voice, it can quickly become its own problem.
Don’t get me wrong; Many technical issues can be resolved over the phone. But you’ll often be able to figure out what’s going on much quicker if you can see what you’re working with. You might ask your dad, “Is there a port on the back labeled HDMI 1? It should be, I don’t know, next to all the other ports…” Or you could have him point his iPhone at the back of the TV and show him which port is which.
If your family has questions about a new smart TV, setting up speakers, a smartwatch, or anything like that, it’s probably easiest to help them with a video call. Often the easiest way to do this will be through a FaceTime or other smartphone video call, as they can easily move the camera around to show you what they’re looking at.
Ask them to share their screen
Video calls are a great resource for tech support, provided there’s something wrong with the device you usually call. If your loved one is having a problem with their smartphone, tablet, or computer, instead of pointing the camera at them, you can simply show them your screen.
Screen sharing used to be more difficult than it is today, but thanks to the proliferation of video conferencing apps, the feature is now easily accessible from almost all modern devices. Your friend can share their laptop screen with your phone, their phone screen with your tablet, and their tablet screen with your laptop. You also have several operating options, depending on the device in question.
For Apple users, FaceTime’s SharePlay may be the best option. This feature, first introduced in iOS 15 a few years ago, allows you to share your screen with other FaceTime participants. In iOS 18, SharePlay expands to include screen sharing and the ability to give control of your screen to others. If your friend is having trouble with their iPhone, iPad, or Mac, they can call FaceTime, share their screen , and you can help them fix the problem. If you and the other person have Mac computers, you can also ask them to share their screen using the Messages app .
But whether your friend uses Apple, Android, or Windows, there are plenty of other screen sharing solutions out there. This feature is built into popular apps such as Zoom, Discord , Teams, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger ; all you have to do is make sure they download and set up the appropriate app (ditto on your end) and then initiate screen sharing.
Zoom has a very obvious “Share Screen” option in the video call window; Have a friend click on it, then click “Desktop” and “Done.” Teams and Skype have a similar feature; have them click the arrow box, then “Desktop,” “Share,” or “Start Sharing.” It will be much easier to give instructions from here.
Record your screen to help them.
If you don’t live in the same time zone as your loved ones but still want to help them, you can try connecting them with one of our detailed guides on common problems, like how to take screenshots on an iPhone or Mac . However, if you can’t find a solution online or prefer a customized approach, you can record your screen. You can easily create a screen recording on both Android and iPhone and even on Windows PC or Mac to explain how to access certain features.
If you have a Mac, there is a way to make screen recordings even more useful, especially if you have a Mac. Apps like Keystro ($6) and Cleanshot X ($29) let you overlay your keyboard keystrokes with your screen recording. This will allow your friends and family to see which buttons to press so they can follow instructions exactly.
Use a remote access app
Sometimes the simplest solution is the one you make yourself. Yes, yes, teach a person to fish and all that, but no one will learn to fish if the technical support session ends in disappointment.
If you’re up to the initial challenge, gaining remote access to your friend’s device can make technical assistance on your part much easier. Of course, this involves setting up remote access. You will need to use one of the above methods to set up and install your chosen remote access program, and your family member or friend will need to follow your instructions. Good luck!
Unfortunately, remote access is only possible on a Mac or PC in most cases. For iPhone and Android, most “remote sharing” solutions you’ll find are actually glorified screen sharing tools. Even the app I’m about to recommend, although available on mobile devices, only offers screen mirroring when trying to share access to the phone.
There are many ways to access your Mac or PC remotely, but the easiest is through an app like TeamViewer. TeamViewer reduces remote access to a unique ID and password; your friend will provide you with this information and in a few seconds you will have access to their entire computer from your computer, smartphone or tablet.
You should definitely do a screen sharing session when setting up this app as it can be difficult to explain over the phone.
How to use TeamViewer to access your computer remotely
Ask your friend to go to teamviewer.com and click “Download for Free”. You should do the same or, if installing on a mobile device, download TeamViewer Remote Control for iOS or Android . Ask them to install the program just like any other. On Windows, installation is quite simple; simply select Set as Default, Accept – Next, and then allow TeamViewer to make changes to your device.
If they’re on a Mac, you’ll need to enable three different security settings. Luckily, TeamViewer displays a pop-up window explaining exactly what settings you need to enable; Screen recording , accessibility features and full disk access . If you don’t see the pop-up window, you’ll find all three options under System Preferences > Security & Privacy . After clicking on each option, enable TeamViewer. If you don’t see this option, click (+) then select TeamViewer from your applications.
At this point, your friend will have a unique ID and password for the TeamViewer app. Enter this ID into the Manage Remote Computer field in TeamViewer, then enter the password when prompted. You should see your friend’s computer screen in the window of your device! There are a lot of settings here that you can play with, but essentially you now have control over your computer.
When you are finished with your technical support session, click (X) in the TeamViewer window. You should also be sure that no one else has access to the ID and password you entered earlier. Remote access is very useful, but can be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. Try to get this point across; you don’t want your convenient remote session to lead to a cybersecurity disaster.