Remote Access on an iPad?

June 21, 2016 10:15 AM

I have an older relative who has just gotten an iPad, but they live far away. Is there an app I can use to remote view their iPad desktop to help them navigate the internet?
posted by to sir with millipedes to Technology (4 answers total)

There are some clunky sort of workarounds but they involve people being able to follow a few instructions to get there (here is one). TeamViewer does some stuff and may let you view but not control the device. I'm unclear from their site what exactly it does but you can check that out here.
posted by jessamyn at 10:28 AM on June 21, 2016

I'd be thrilled to learn otherwise, but I believe Apple precludes this explicitly (i.e they simply won't approve screen-sharing apps for distribution in the App Store.)

If they have a computer in addition to the iPad, here are some instructions for remotely viewing the iPad by setting it up to mirror its display to the computer, then screen-sharing to the computer. It's a bit complicated to walk a non-computer-literate person through, unfortunately.
posted by contraption at 10:29 AM on June 21, 2016

From a teaching perspective, I'd want to let them use their own hands and fingers to learn what you are teaching. And so I'd see if you can arrange a chat on, e.g., a laptop with something like Skype so you can see the iPad and what the owner is doing with it, and they can hear you as they do it.
posted by bearwife at 1:42 PM on June 21, 2016

I have an elder who regularly calls me for iPad tech support. I've found the most successful way to help them is to have an iPad of my own and then try and duplicate exactly what they did to get where they are now. Then I can talk them backwards through the steps to get them where they want to be.

It's not a fast process, and we have to make up our own words to describe things, since they don't know the correct terms for things, but I've found that doing it this way really helps them learn as they go, cutting down over the long term on their need for my help.
posted by Brody's chum at 12:06 PM on June 22, 2016 [2 favorites]