My brother in law has early onset dementia and now, a few years after diagnosis, is starting to decline more obviously. He's sometimes getting lost or confused about directions but then gets stressed and isn't up to using a phone app himself, so are there any simple apps that would let his wife use his phone remotely to (for instance) set up Google maps directions to get him home but which are obviously secure enough that random hackers can't do their nefarious deeds?
TeamViewer QuickSupport will allow you to remote onto an Android device to launch apps. It's free for personal use. He will have to start the receiver app and allow the access each time.
Yeah team viewer is free for home use, and is what I use for my Nans PC and tablet..
Obvioulsly they need to be aware not to give thier access code out to anyone but you.
Thanks both - I'll take a look at that, though the big challenge at the moment is getting him to ask for help in the first place as he's clinging on to his independence
While it doesn't do what you want, the Family Link app will allow her to know where he is. It is also handy for finding phones when they have the volume turned off.
Life360 is a good free app that share's your location with a group of people, so at least you'd know where they (or their phone) were
it's only free because they sell all the data they aggregate from it so whether the app is "good" depends how you feel about that I suppose 😃Life360 is a good free app
Does he have his home location set in Gmaps?
If so, if he is able, he can just hit 'Go' at the bottom of the screen and at the top of the list that's displayed will be 'Home'.
Alternatively, and maybe better:
Press and hold an empty part of the screen and select Widgets from the options that appear.
Select Maps from the list and then select the (1 x1) 'Directions' shortcut widget.
In the screen that opens select/type in Home and set the transport method to Walking.
Give the widget an obvious name such as 'Go Home' and move it to his home screen.
{If he can} All he has to do is hit the 'Go Home' icon on his screen and maps will show him walking directions back home.
That might help.
Edit: there's also a widget for location sharing but I don't think that can be set up to share the location with specific people automatically with just one touch.
