Best Repurpose Of Old Phones
There are many ways to reuse and repurpose your old phone. My favorite and arguable the best is to combine it with a Bluetooth speaker to use your old phone as a music player.
The rapid evolution of technology continually pushes forward. Mobile phones are no exception to this rule. Mobile phone software keeps advancing and requires increasing hardware resources that older phones don’t have. As you move on to your new phone you have a choice to make about what to do with your old mobile phone.
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Obsolete But Not Useless
Your old phone may not have the pep in its step that it once did. As time goes on your mobile phone OS and your apps tend to get bigger and more resource hungry. Year by year your phone becomes slower. But that doesn’t make it completely useless. The trick to repurposing your old phone is to give it a simple task that won’t disappoint you. Set reasonable expectations. Depending on what phone model you have and how old it is you will have to weigh between if it’s more valuable for you to give it a new job or to sell it. Often times the trade-in or used prices of older mobile phones are not very much. This is when you especially should consider giving it another job around your house.
Why Use Your Old Phone As A Music Player?
You probably already have streaming music players in your house. From Roku and Fire Stick devices connected to your TV to Amazon Echo’s, and maybe even a Sirius radio. But very few of them are as easy to control, have the amount of content available, and are as portable as your modern mobile phone. You can turn your phone into a handheld wireless music player that will be your one stop shop for all audio content. Dedicate an old phone to only this task. Then download all of your favorite music streaming apps and create your mood playlists. You can even store music from these services on your phone to take it wherever you go.
Content Is King!
Your options are extensive. Nearly limitless music. This is a small list of some of the common music streaming services available on any modern mobile phone.
- Amazon Music
- Apple Music
- Deezer
- di.fm
- Idagio
- iHeartRadio
- iTunes
- Napster
- Pandora
- Podcasts
- Qobuz
- SiriusXM
- Spotify
- Tidal
- TuneIn Radio
- YouTube Music
There are many more music streaming services you could try. You can also play your own music collection stored on your phone or from your home network via a computer or a NAS server.
Use Your Old Phone As A Music Player
I like the convenience of keeping my music phone paired to an always-on countertop Bluetooth speaker. Just pick it up and start playing music whenever you’d like. I have taken a fond liking to the Doss Soundbox XL sold on Amazon for its great sound quality for the price and ability to play music while plugged in. I have one on each floor of the house which has a dedicated music player phone stored next to it. See photo at the top. You can use your main phone for other tasks without affecting your music. You can take a call on your primary mobile phone without stopping the music, for example. You can leave and run an errand and come back to your music still playing. It takes away the annoyance of having to re-pair your main phone as you come and go.
I disconnect my old phones from my mobile carriers voice and data plan. No need to pay for those services. I use them exclusively at home connected to my home wireless network. If I want to take my music phone on a journey away from my home WIFI I can download music and playlists from my premium streaming service apps to the internal memory of my old phone. Since this is an extra phone I don’t have to worry about clogging up the storage of my main mobile phone with hundreds of music files. My old phone has plenty of storage space because I only have music apps loaded on it. Remove the apps you won’t use to free up drive space.
Old Phone Repurpose Alternative: Media Player For Video
Another excellent alternative is to use an old phone as a mobile video player. The most useful way to do this is to download video content for offline viewing. You probably won’t keep paying for cellular voice and data on the old phone. Download content at home to view when you are away. Let’s say you have a long train, subway, or bus ride on your commute to work and you would like to spend that time watching your favorite series or movie. Many video streaming providers allow downloading content for offline viewing. Some that I have used in the past are Amazon Prime Video, Dish Anywhere, and Netflix. Download the content at home and enjoy it on the go without affecting your data plan or draining the battery of your primary mobile phone.
Related Content
If you have Amazon Echo speakers and a library of purchased digital music you will want to read my guide on how to play music files on Amazon Echo speakers.