With the abundance of communications and social apps on phones and PCs, keeping in touch with family and friends is as easy as a push of a button. The potential frustration of figuring out which apps to use, encountering error messages or things simply not working as you expect, has grown too. Usually, a family member or friend is called upon to fix devices as “tech support” – it may be you, or someone you’ve relied on in the past – but solving issues without being able to interact with a device or see the screen can be a difficult task. The grand prize winning project of this year’s Microsoft Global Hackathon sets out to provide a secure and easy way to remotely help loved ones with their devices and apps.
Being the more tech-literate family member called on to help is a role many Microsoft employees identified with, from all regions of the world. Members of the grand prize winning team shared the experience of trying to help loved ones diagnose issues and explain how to fix them, like updating software, adjusting settings, or removing malware. Their winning project is less about restricting usage like some solutions that are for parents monitoring kids’ devices, and more about enabling anyone to provide secure, timely, and frustration-free tech support to manage devices for loved ones when they need help.
Read more about the project and the team: An easier way to help people give tech support to loved ones wins Microsoft Hackathon top prize by Susanna Ray.
