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PaperclipPerfector  15d ago (text post)   2958 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 16, 2025

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I got a new phone recently. Not a great one, it's a downgrade on my previous phone in several areas and the march of enshittification in phone design is clearly continuing at pace.

But that topic has been done to death and I wanted to ask something else of the community. What uncommon or interesting things can you do with a modern smartphone?

It occurred to me as I was transferring everything over that I have barely changed how I use a smartphone since I bought my very first over a decade ago. I can emulate more games consoles now, and I grudgingly use some of the digital wallet features, but otherwise all the years of development doesn't seem to have changed anything at all. Are there cool features or applications that I'm missing out on?

Improved cameras as pretty useful to me.

I have a google pixel 8 pro and I've been using the camera extensively and it works as telescope too, lol

Does it really, or does it lie about what it sees?

It occurred to me as I was transferring everything over that I have barely changed how I use a smartphone since I bought my very first over a decade ago. I can emulate more games consoles now, and I grudgingly use some of the digital wallet features, but otherwise all the years of development doesn't seem to have changed anything at all. Are there cool features or applications that I'm missing out on?

I have been trying to find the same since past year and my conclusion is, not much. There are some interesting apps I use on daily basis that might be of interest-

  • QuickCursor - It just adds the ability to whip out a cursor when you perform a simple swipe at the bottom end of the screen. Very basic functionality but intutive to use and something that has defintely improved my user experience
  • NFC based automation - Triggers a preconfigured task when a certain, already mapped NFC tag is swiped. for example scanning a NFC tag attached to your washing machine that sets a reminder when the clothes have been washed
  • Swipe based gallery cleaners - left to delete, right to keep
  • URLChecker - Let's you set the app to open or delete any trackers when opening a URL. Would only appeal to people concerned about privacy.
  • Task automation(ifttt/tasker) - Fully featured task automater can make your life quite easy. For example, when unplugged from your car's bluetooth turn on wifi and connect to home network(vice versa). Opens out tons of possibility in a Phone.
  • SMS Organizer - Automatically sorts your messages according to the type of message(personal/financial information/promotions(spam))
  • Buzzkill - Good notification management app
  • P!n -> Tool to pin text to remember on notifications

I think we have hit the saturation level on what a smartphone can do with the current app based UI design and just improving software wouldn't work. I find app based design very constricting since to chain different abilities of what a phone can do needs to be packaged as an app and then what is the point of having just another app on your phone. I see a lot of potential in new innovation regarding how we interact with our mobile to unlock new age functionality rather than bringing new ideas to current ecosystem. Something like this for example - https://sxmo.org/

On saturday I was out with my wife and she asked me if I could identify a bird that was close. I didn't know, so I picked up my phone, took a picture, used the Google Lens AI search (not sure how to call that feature) selected the bird in the picture, and it IDed the bird immediately, I had the answer within seconds. That felt close to the experience that ads make the latest "AI features" on phones to be. It has to be said though that this was probably the most perfect use of that feature I've had; I've had this phone for 9 months I think and there was never a better use for it.

Google lens is amazing. I was up in the Tokyo Tower recently and zoomed into far away buildings and could immediately ID them and what they are. Feels like a superpower.

That reminds me of https://xkcd.com/1425/

Google lens is pretty cool. I use it a lot to translate other languages writing to English a lot. Very useful for streetsigns and storefronts etc. AI searching of images is pretty good too like described above. Most modern phones will also transcribe your voicemails and send them to you as a text; I think you have to set this up, I don't remember it being default. Modern phone cameras are also very good at correcting the mistakes of amateurs, which I appreciate.

My wife uses it for identifying plants. Every spring we have a bunch of stuff start sprouting up in the garden and she's not sure what's a weed that needs to be plucked and what's a flower that survived/seeded from last year that we might as well keep. But the phone knows, even when they're tiny little sprouts with a couple of leaves.

It's good enough to tell similar but distinct varieties of flowers apart too. It can tell a Mr Lincoln from a Papa Meilland or a Don Juan, and most florists can't do that.

It's good enough to tell similar but distinct varieties of flowers apart too.

In my experience, Google Lens generally can't, but apps like Flora Incognita (which instructs you to take images of the leaves, the flower, the stem, the bark, ect.) can. Flora Incognita also tells you a certainty percentage, which is really helpful.

In my garden, Google Lens has an almost comical inability to distinguish my carrots from yarrow - and it won't warn you that it's less than 50% sure. If you only feed it flower pictures, flora Incognita has trouble as well, but tells you it's less than 40% sure until you take pictures of the leaves and stem.

There's an app for Android called Physics Toolbox that basically allows you to directly read and plot data from all the phone's many sensors. It effectively makes the phone into a tricorder and you can gather information about acceleration, angular velocity, magnetic bearing, GPS position, temperature, pressure, ambient light, noise levels, audio spectral analysis, magnetic field vectors, all kinds of fun stuff.

Agree. There aren't a lot.

The last 2 years have been especially lame. For me, ZFold3 (2021) was the last 'special' phone.

But, ones I use daily are:

  1. Folding phones - I had the Samsung folds and it isn't a gimmick. The huge screens make a difference. I loved being able to point the point at any angle, rest it on a surface and take photos of myself without needing to ask a bystander.

  2. Remote trigger - specifically, the ability to press the samsung stylus buttons to take a photo. They enshittified this one though. The S25 stylus lost this feature and the ZFold 5 doesn't allow you to store the stylus inside. This paired well with folding phones because I can place the phone where ever, and take a photo from the button on the stylus.

  3. Better GPS & fitness tracking - I put them together because they're usually used hand-in-hand with the smartwatch. GPS is just better (agressive) now. I use it for skiing and it tells me my top speed, tracks my runs and all the standard fitness stuff down to the second. Eats your battery really fast though.

  4. Location based actions - Auto switching my ringtone/vibrate/notification profiles between work & home locations.

  5. Picture in picture - Not exactly new. But now stable in all new phones. I can have a floating window playing youtube on my phone 24x7 without affecting the smoothness of the phone.

As I type this, they're all minor.

I has a OnePlus 3T in 2017. It was a substantial improvement on every aspect of my previous smartphone experience. Between the 3T in 2017 and the S25 in 2025, Not that much has changed.

There is AI stuff ofc:

  • Better camera post-processing
  • Google Lens
  • Google Translate
  • Insane image editing (removing objects, moving people within the scene)

But for some reason that feels like its own thing.

Location based actions - Auto switching my ringtone/vibrate/notification profiles between work & home locations.

You listed a lot of good points, but I want to highlight this one because it can be a real game changer for people who aren't doing it and the amount of effort required is minimal. Some of that you just do through settings (and remember you can search your settings, which is good because they keep shuffling where things go) but for a more robust solution grab tasker and start organising!

I have barely changed how I use a smartphone since I bought my very first over a decade ago

I have the same feeling. But for me, something else changed: the phone takes on more and more additional duties. Within the last two hardware generations, I've completely stopped bringing my DSLR camera and my outdoor GPS unit (for mountaineering).

Modern smartphone camera sensors and lenses are decent (when compared to compact cameras), and modern camera software is - frankly - completely insane. The combination of the two now easily beats my skill level on a DSLR camera that has orders of magnitude more sensor area, lens diameter and aperture diameter. I'm generally a software skeptic (progress in software development over the last 10 years has resulted in very little "real" value being created), but camera software amazes me. Instead of taking a still image, phones now always capture a short video instead and distill the final image in post - a mostly automatic process that results in sharp, correctly lighted and color balanced shot.

Replacing the GPS unit was more trivial. OLED displays are more readable in the sun, the GPS chips got a bit faster, and again, the quality of the software/data got orders of magnitude better (the free offline geo-data available today is vastly better than the commercial data of a few years ago). Route planning and terrain analysis also got so much better. Used to take a PC and skill and experience, now everybody can do it on the phone with 30 minutes of instructions. Also, if you have the right smartwatch, you won't be taking a device out of your pocket at all anymore.

Modern smartphone camera sensors and lenses are decent (when compared to compact cameras), and modern camera software is - frankly - completely insane. The combination of the two now easily beats my skill level on a DSLR camera that has orders of magnitude more sensor area, lens diameter and aperture diameter. I'm generally a software skeptic (progress in software development over the last 10 years has resulted in very little "real" value being created), but camera software amazes me. Instead of taking a still image, phones now always capture a short video instead and distill the final image in post - a mostly automatic process that results in sharp, correctly lighted and color balanced shot.

I've gone the other direction and bought a real camera a while ago. I got fed up with the overcooked processing phones do, the extremely limited choice of focal lengths (wide and ultrawide unless you buy an expensive and huge phone with a "portrait" lens) and the bad image shake. Most importantly, the ergonomics of taking photos on a phone are shit tier compared to any halfway decent camera that has a viewfinder and where the body has been designed for the task of taking photos. I don't see phones getting better in ergonomics or focal lengths as improving those would make them directly unappealing to 90% of the market and 99% of the influencer market: people who want a sleek looking device for using social media.

Of course I'd also hate to use an old style massive and heavy DSLR. Luckily there have been good lightweight mirrorless cameras on the market for over a decade.

One thing is certain: Phones have killed the compact camera market for good except for hipsters who want a retro looking toy that also happens to function as a camera and a few rare holdouts. For casual snapshots of groups of friends etc. phones are great.

For casual snapshots of groups of friends etc. phones are great.

To be honest, I mostly take photos of my kids, and sometimes of people climbing/skiing. Both situations can have challenging lighting and object that don't stop moving around. The phone software has been absolutely amazing at eliminating motion blur and/or underexposed images, something I've previously struggled with even at 1/120s. And yeah, I often miss having the tele lens, but I've gotten used to moving in to take the shot - or with having a shot of nice landscape that has some action in it.

Most importantly, the ergonomics of taking photos on a phone are shit tier compared to any halfway decent camera that has a viewfinder and where the body has been designed for the task of taking photos.

True. Getting a phone with a hardware shutter button is absolutely essential. The rest can't be helped, I think.

I've gone the other direction and bought a real camera a while ago. I got fed up with the overcooked processing phones do.

I know what you mean. The good thing is you can turn that off - either feature by feature, or all of it. Or use an alternative camera app if you want to set exposure and ISO yourself (and those apps aways only produce traditional stills), export un-edited stills from the short videos the main camera app takes before it starts AI-editing them, or tell it do AI-slopification by default but also always save RAW images. At least that's the state of the art on Google Phones.

Luckily there have been good lightweight mirrorless cameras on the market for over a decade.

I'm sure for many use-cases a modern mirrorless takes far superior pictures, especially when used by a experienced photographer. But the AI has been amazing for normies.

Getting a phone with a hardware shutter button is absolutely essential

The Volume Down button works for this on pretty much all recent phones.

I'm sure for many use-cases a modern mirrorless takes far superior pictures, especially when used by a experienced photographer. But the AI has been amazing for normies.

Image quality is largely a red herring. It's been plenty good enough for common uses for quite some time now.

The real difference is about the actual experience of taking photos and the range and types of photos you're able to take. A phone fundamentally has the same limitations as compact cameras do except with much worse user interface. It just isn't going to work for any small subjects that aren't right in front of you or anything distant.

Image quality is largely a red herring.

I disagree. I'd call full page images in an A4 photo book and 14"-20" framed pictures a "standard use case" for high quality photos. If I take my DSLR in medium-challenging lighting conditions, a large number of shots won't have the image quality to be printed at those dimensions. Sharpness/blurriness, insufficient exposure, ISO-noise, ect. will be a problem in a percentage of shots - and often, in the most interesting shots, of course.

I'd call full page images in an A4 photo book and 14"-20" framed pictures a "standard use case" for high quality photos.

That may be standard for some segment of hardcore photography enthusiasts but the actual standard for almost all people who take photos is computer / tablet / phone screens, meaning 2 - 4 MP. For that extremely common scenario phone image quality is most of the time perfectly fine (as evidenced by how many people are happy with it) and any issues are more due to forced overcooking by the phone algorithms.

I know a fair few photographers as well as being a hobbyist myself but I don't know a single person who's printed a large size photo in years. It's all viewed on screen.

I've been thinking along the same lines recently. All this power, and nothing to do with it.

I plan to leverage more translate technology this summer while traveling internationally.

Unique capabilities tend to be locked behind high-quality paid apps at the least it seems like. I have a digital reference for knot tying which is really awesome. It shows you a progression of how to tie a not, classifies them based on usage, and let's your rotate and adjust the view. Great for camping with a bunch of other idiot nerds.

PDF scanning has gotten great.

Someone went ahead and built the application I've dreamed about making myself for 3 years for managing trips. It's not the way I would have done it, and it needs some serious work in the desktop/web UX department, but even the free version is nice. I'll admit this is just a fancy spreadsheet so it's not a true net-new capability.

knot tying

That is a great app. I just bought it, and I'll use it a lot, but I still want to complain about this class of thing in general. That is, monetizing publicly available info for mobile formats. If I didn't have a stash of Googlebux about to expire, I'd have passed on principle.

On a PC, if you wanted to look up how to tie an Alpine Butterfly, you'd quickly search it on Google or Perplexity. If some site was selling a tutorial for $5 you'd automatically move on to the next available free one, because we don't live in an age where the Mountaineering Guild gatekeeps access to the secret knowledge of rope folding, and it's near trivial to put up a site with the instructions for free. It bothers me a bit that developers get away with selling the same thing as a mobile app simply because of the added annoyance of trying to do it with a small screen + thumbs.

Yes, the presentation here is excellent. The UI is near-perfect, but also, I bet I could have Claude vibe-code me one with little effort.

I think this is more about the incredibly nice interactive UI than gatekeeping the actual knowledge of how to tie a knot.

I have no problem searching whatever arbitrary thing I want on my phone, or indeed typing paragraphs of text: if all this app did was present pretty text instructions I'd have no interest, it's easy to get those text instructions to my phone any time I want for free. But I want to learn knot-tying and don't really understand it, and this seems like a significant improvement for learning.

If you think that sort of thing is easy to code through AI, you're welcome to throw an open-source and free version of it up somewhere, you'd be helping out rope enthusiasts everywhere and making a convincing case that the developers aren't doing anything important. I suspect the easy-to-code version of that app loses a lot in usability though.

Scanning and OCR is a good one I forgot. As @Ioper mentions, it's been good for a long time, but the advances in OCR in particular are pushing things like translation forwards.

One new app I have got on my phone now is https://recipekeeperonline.com/, one of those paywalled apps you mention. It's allowing me to digitize my entire cookbook collection, and it really is pretty impressive how well it converts a huge number of different recipe formats into pretty perfect ingredient lists and steps, without any involvement from me

Wasn't Pdf scanning just fine as far back as in 2015?

It seems to me that major advances have been in the cameras and the video/photo processing. If you don't care about that then there is little to no functional difference between the current phones and phones from 2013.

In my experience, you could always convert a picture into a .pdf, but faithfully and easily converting a physical page into a properly formatted, clear .pdf is a much more recent innovation.

Regional Japan 10 years ago was very difficult to get around without knowing the language. Now with Google Translate (for conversation) and AR translation of text you can go about your day pretty frictionless. Remarkable difference between the two travel experiences.

Esims are very convenient too.

Not a smartphone invention but AI was a fantastic help.

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