HACKER Q&A
📣 softwaredoug

Get low tech skilled relative setup with a video call device?


We have a grandparent that is eager to be able to regularly video chat with us/our kids. I would love to just have something shipped to their house that will work out of the box with no/minimal setup. You can imagine with the isolation of Covid 19, and the fact they live alone, seeing us would be very meaningful to them.

We use FaceTime for other slightly more tech capable relatives. If it was setup out of the box, they could likely pickup a call. But I know setting up a new iPad or iPhone can be tough when you struggle to understand what WiFi even is! Ideally I’d ship them an already working device, perhaps the same way we would setup a kids iPad, with FaceTime, and ship it to them.

I wonder though if there’s another low hassle solution? Or other tech I should be looking at that nails this use case?

In more normal times I’d go to their house. They’re unfortunately a few hundred miles away...

  👤 applecrazy Accepted Answer ✓
Ship them a preconfigured router and an already-set-up iPad (with the WiFi router's SSID/password preloaded) along with some printed instructions and pictures on how to plug the router in and how to open up FaceTime. If you want them to use only the video call functionality, you can turn on Guided Access, which can lock the iPad into one particular app, so you could pre-open FaceTime for them.

Or you could ship them (along with the router) an Echo Show or a Facebook Portal (I think the Portal is easiest to set up and use). This is about as simple as you can get for video calling, but these devices aren't very portable.