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Whether it’s last year’s model or a digital antique like an iPhone 6s, that once-cherished device can be given a whole new lease of life. Here’s how an old iPhone can still be hugely useful.
We need to get two things out of the way first. That starts with how you could just give your old iPhone away to your kids or charity, and maybe that’s the best thing to do.
But you could also trade in that phone. Whether you do this through Apple when you order your iPhone, or through another company later, it can be worth doing.
But otherwise, if you’ve been holding onto an old iPhone, there’s so much more it can do, just wait for a spare to arrive.
There are many, many tasks that an old iPhone can do. Each and every one of them varies from low costs to at most subscription costs, which you can also benefit from with your new iPhone.
That’s because this is a computer you have here, this is a marvel of technology. There are limits: the older the phone, the harder it is to get software to run on it. So you need to know which iOS version an app needs and which is the latest iOS that you can use on your phone.
For example, phones dating back to the iPhone 6s can run iOS 15, but older ones can’t, including the iPhone 6. And every time there’s a new version of iOS, it’s at least likely that one or more old iPhones will run the latest and greatest. best release can no longer support.
Update the phone as high as possible and keep updating it with Apple’s security and new feature releases.
Then you are ready to use the old iPhone again. For example, if you’re used to putting all your old iPhones in storage, try putting one in your window as a security camera.
Security camera
It would be so convenient and simple if you could use an old iPhone as a HomeKit Secure Video camera. But since you can’t — there are other HomeKit uses, just not this one — you’ll have to look at third-party apps.
Low resolution video footage of an iPhone 6 being used as a security camera
It won’t be feature-length video quality, but for a security system – and free – this is more than enough to give you peace of mind while you’re away. Presence is a free-to-try app that you install on your old iPhone as well as on another device like your new iPhone or your Mac.
If they are both enabled and both are logged into a Presence account, you have a security system.
Presence is actually the beginning of a security system. You can pay $49.99 for an annual subscription to a service that offers longer recordings and storage. Presence: Video Security Camera requires iOS 8.0 or later.
The company also sells motion sensors, smart plugs and complete security systems. You may be further tempted by Presence’s products, but the free app on your old iPhone is a bargain.
Keep in mind that iPhone batteries don’t last long, even on new devices, so your old battery won’t last while you go on a European tour. You must run a Lightning cable to the mains.
That goes for anything you want to make sure the iPhone stays on all the time, or at least for many hours, like a baby monitor. It may seem that your child never sleeps for hours on end. You might like to trade places with him or her, but if the iPhone stays charged, at least you don’t risk waking them up by checking.
There are dozens or more baby monitor apps for iOS: This $5.99 Baby Monitor 3G also has an Apple TV app. It requires iOS 9.0 or later.
Change the channel
Of course, you never tire of watching your kids, but if by some miracle you ever want to switch from them to, say, a streaming service, you have many options.
Install the Netflix app, set up an account and you’ll have an extra pocket TV. Likewise, there is Amazon Prime Video. And you may have noticed that Apple now has its own Apple TV+ pre-installed on iOS as well.
This may be a case where having an older iPad is more useful than an old iPhone, but remember that no matter what device you have, most broadcasters will provide a streaming service for you to watch.
And if for some reason they don’t, just record your evening, week, weekend and maybe your life with the YouTube app.
Before that, that sounds too nice – after all, we would have paid a lot of money for a device that could play all this – there’s a catch. All this use of streaming video, security cameras and baby monitors requires Wi-Fi.
This is where an old iPhone without a SIM card is basically an iPod touch. It’s no longer a phone, with a cellular connection, it’s a video player on Wi-Fi.
Music
If a SIM-less iPhone is an iPod touch, then it follows that you can use it with Apple Music as well. Be sure to download a few albums to the device in case you don’t have WiFi.
Strictly speaking, when you subscribe to Apple Music, you pay for an Apple ID to subscribe — and there’s no reason why you can’t listen on both your old and new iPhone.
So plug it into your kitchen, bedroom or office and listen to music all day long. It won’t be as good as having a HomePod, but at least it’s better than having your current phone that stops playing music every time you get a spam call.
And it can work with your AirPods too.
reading in bed
Charge your new iPhone wirelessly on the MagSafe charging dock next to your desk and take your old phone to bed. Lower the screen brightness, turn off notifications, and relax with some reading.
However, you can also read Apple News+ on your iPhone, or at least if you want to keep yourself up all night. Maybe, instead of doom scrolling, you could read some articles you’ve been dying to catch up on.
In addition to the magazines on Apple’s service, you can also collect articles from websites or RSS feeds that you read. Then you can use read-it-later services, such as those in Reeder, or through both Pocket or Instapaper
Pocket and Instapaper require iOS 13.0 or later, while Apple News+ relies on iOS 10.0 or later.
Talking about bed
This doesn’t have to be by your bed either, it could be a clock on your desk. There are countless clock apps, but for example Studio Clock GX2021 mimics an old BBC digital studio clock.
Take control of HomeKit
Apple’s Home app isn’t the best designed in the world, and the third-party Home+ 5 is much better.
Either way, using them to control your HomeKit devices on your current iPhone is a chore, because that inevitably means stopping whatever else you’re doing. Or with Siri.
As good as Siri is, it can get stuck in a loop where it keeps repeating, “You mean the office light?” no matter how loud you say yes. By the way, if you end up being driven to say something else, you can have Siri reply, “I’m not going to respond to that.”
However, you can put an old iPhone or an old iPad somewhere it’s convenient and can be plugged in permanently. Paste it there, launch Home or Home+5 and let them run.
You just turned this old device into a HomeKit dashboard.
Old hardware
We’ve mostly talked about iPhones here, but that’s because every year we’re all looking for ways to justify updating to a new one. However, everything here also applies to old iPads.
It really applies to all old Apple devices: anything can be reused or reused.
For example, if you have a recent Apple TV 4K, your old one will work really well when you travel. So put that in your luggage instead of in the desk drawer.
Don’t forget to throw an HDMI and power cable in there too.
This post What to do with an old iPhone after moving to a new one?
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