Tip of the Week: Merge Your Mobile Devices and Stop Carrying 2 Phones

For most things in life, two is better than one--except when it comes to smartphones. Anyone who’s ever tried juggling a work-issued phone and a personal device understands how real this struggle can be. Are you experiencing this multi-phone dilemma? Here are some tips to help you successfully merge your two phones.

Use Call Forwarding
If the only reason you’re lugging around a second phone is because you need it to answer calls, then you can easily leave one phone behind by forwarding all incoming calls to the other phone. Virtually every cell phone has this feature. In Android (depending on your version), open the phone app > Call settings > Additional settings > Call forwarding, you’ll then select which call forwarding option you want and enter the phone number of the second device. Just remember to turn off call forwarding when you return to your other phone and no longer need it activated.

Many VoIP phone systems let you automatically forward calls to cell phones. In some cases, you can even set up a schedule so after hours calls can be forwarded to your cell phone. Depending on your VoIP solution, you may just need to download an app.

Mirror Text Messages
While call forwarding is super easy to set up, forwarding your text messages is a little more complicated. Unlike call forwarding, the ability to mirror text messages between two devices doesn’t come as a standard feature on Android or iOS, which means that you’ll have to seek out the assistance of a third-party solution. One such text messaging mirroring solution is MySMS. The only drawback is that comes with a yearly fee of $9.99.

• MySMS for AndroidMySMS for Android
• MySMS for iOS

Set Up Multiple Accounts on One Device
Did you know that both Android and iOS devices allow users to set up multiple accounts on a single device? This may be an ideal situation if you want to add your work account to your personal device, or vice versa. Two things to keep in mind when doing this: 1) make sure to correctly set up important apps like calendar and email so you don’t get these mixed up, and 2) if you’re adding a work account, be sure to review your company’s mobile device security policy so you’re not putting sensitive data at risk.

Sync Your Apps to the Cloud
Whether you only have one smartphone and one PC, or you’re using two smartphones, a tablet, a laptop, and a workstation, it can be confusing to use multiple devices. If you’re looking to streamline your device usage, then syncing your cloud-based apps like Dropbox, Office 365, Google Drive, iCloud, etc., is the way to go. Otherwise, you’ll risk each device hosting critical data that can’t be accessed from other devices.

By consolidating your mobile devices, you’ll reduce the risk of having the device you’re not using getting lost or stolen, and it will be much more convenient than having to switch back and forth between devices. Of course, when merging devices like this, you’ll want to make sure that you’re not leaking sensitive data, and that you’re in compliance with whatever security policies your company has in place.

For assistance with this and all of your technology needs, call Preferred at 708-781-7110.