When a friend or member of the family requests tech support but is unable to receive it due to distance or other circumstances, it can be difficult for tech-savvy people. It’s common to set up, troubleshoot, or troubleshoot a device while visiting a loved one or acquaintance. A plan has been developed by the group to help families with tech support overcome some of the obstacles. Microsoft’s Global Hackathon was won by their concept.
The winning hackathon team, Gracie Wilson, stated that there would always be individuals in need of assistance. “My family refers to my sister and I as “tech support.” I’ll explain. They phoned me and said, “I need tech support. What are you doing to see the screen?”
Wilson’s situation will sound familiar to many readers. She joined a group of engineers and developers to work on an idea for a family tech support app. The goal being to create a secure and simple way for people to help others with their gadgets.
The family tech support idea beat out over 10,000 others, including the Xbox ‘medals’ achievement system that we exclusively covered. Over 68,000 Microsoft employees spanning 89 countries worked on projects in what is called the “world’s largest private hackathon.”
“Whenever I would visit, I would set up the home screen for them with their favorite apps, but then they`d accidentally delete the shortcut, and they`d call me thinking the app was gone and they broke it, or they`d hold the phone with a finger on the volume button and end up putting it on mute and couldn`t hear it ringing anymore, and I just wished I could see the screen to know what was wrong,”
From personal experience, I can say that Godbole’s story is shared by many people. I have a family member with poor eyesight that struggles with apps that require different steps to perform the same tasks. For example, some apps require additional checkboxes or selections to share photos. These are difficult to explain over the phone or text her messages without looking at the other person’s screen.
Distance isn’t the only obstacle that affects families who provide each other with technical support. Security can be an issue. A solution devised by the hackathon-winning team cancels requests for help if they are not responded to in a timely manner. This will close the connection and protect your device.
“I want to help my father, but I also work as a security guard, so I don’t know what bad people can do when given the opportunity, and what good intentions can do. “We know how it can be exploited by people,” Monwuba says. “So security was important.”