[Android Central Question]

Hi,
I hope i'm posting this in the correct forum.
Due to Coronavirus and our elderly people being quarantined, we had the idea to use cheap android tablets/phones as a way to let them communicate.

The problem we are having is that as far as we know none of the more well known apps (hangout, skype, whatsapp or discord) offers a way to quick dial a contact into a video call from the home screen. We would like to make it as simple as possible.

We would like to have just one or two icons of known contacts on the home screen, when pressed it auto starts a video call.

Is there a way this can be achieved ?

Many thanks,
Ricardo

[VidJunky]

I would imagine that your clients don't have much in the way of social media however a quick Google shows that Facebook's Messenger will do this as seen in the first link. In the second link it looks like WhatsApp will also do this. With both apps whomever is being contacted will also have to have the app. So if you're doing for everyone in your community it would be simple to install either on all of the devices but if they are trying to make contact outside of your control this may be more challenging.

[VidJunky]

Where are my manors... Welcome to Android Central. To reply to this thread please create an account. This link will help you do that... https://forums.androidcentral.com/as...-new-post.html

[picasso88]

This time with an account

Thanks for the quick reply. This was as far as we got, we notice the link for chat is easy i thinks some apps even allow you to quick dial a contact.

The problem is these people are not tech savvy most of them never used an mobile phone/tablet or computer.

So for them we would like to remove the extra step currently needed to initiate a video call, in the ideal situation we just have one home screen with large icons of family members and when pressed it initiate an video call.

Currently we have the homescreen, we can create the icons (at this moment we are using hangouts but are not bound by this, since it does not require phone numers).
The icon opens the chat after that people need to find the small camera icon in the corner to initiate the call.

It is that last step that we would like to get rid of.

Many thanks
Ricardo

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I think this is possible using Duo: https://support.google.com/duo/thread/897719?hl=en.

[mustang7757]

This time with an account

Thanks for the quick reply. This was as far as we got, we notice the link for chat is easy i thinks some apps even allow you to quick dial a contact.

The problem is these people are not tech savvy most of them never used an mobile phone/tablet or computer.

So for them we would like to remove the extra step currently needed to initiate a video call, in the ideal situation we just have one home screen with large icons of family members and when pressed it initiate an video call.

Currently we have the homescreen, we can create the icons (at this moment we are using hangouts but are not bound by this, since it does not require phone numers).
The icon opens the chat after that people need to find the small camera icon in the corner to initiate the call.

It is that last step that we would like to get rid of.

Many thanks
Ricardo

Which phone/tablet you have ?

[picasso88]

Hi, we are using an Alcatel 1T7 but it should work on any cheap tablet or phone.

[mustang7757]

Hi, we are using an Alcatel 1T7 but it should work on any cheap tablet or phone.

Thanks , and you know what android version its on?

[B. Diddy]

Did you already try using Duo as I suggested above?

[picasso88]

Did you already try using Duo as I suggested above?

Sorry i missed your response.
We started using it this morning, it is a bit better the call button is bigger

But it looks like it needs a phone number on android, and it is still a 2 click operation to initiate the call.

[B. Diddy]

Ah yes, I thought the people in question would have a phone number.

[picasso88]

Ah yes, I thought the people in question would have a phone number.

So did i xD
Most have land lines but most of them dont know there own number. But even then we have problems installing it since we dont have access to care homes any more.

[B. Diddy]

Unfortunately, many of the video call/chat platforms do require a cellphone number.

Did you already try this widget? Speed Dial Widget