Video Calls With Family: Setting Up the Tablet Right

A phone call carries words; a video call additionally carries facial expression, gestures and a piece of the surroundings. Someone who can see that the other person is doing well asks different follow-up questions - and someone who sees the grandchildren doing homework has a topic that reaches beyond asking how things are. The need for this is considerable in Germany: around 17.3 million (Federal Statistical Office) people lived alone in 2025, which corresponds to 20.9 percent (Federal Statistical Office) of the population. In the age group of 65 and over, a good third lived alone; among those aged at least 85 it was 55.8 percent (Federal Statistical Office), more than one in two. In European comparison Germany sits above the average: 35.2 percent (Eurostat) of people aged 65 and over live alone here, against 32.2 percent (Eurostat) across the EU; among women aged 65 and over in Germany it is 45.4 percent (Eurostat). What matters is the correct reading of these numbers, and it turns out less dramatic than many assume: according to the time use survey, 16.3 percent (Federal Statistical Office) of the population aged 10 and over felt lonely; among people under 30 living alone it was 35.9 percent (Federal Statistical Office), while among people aged 65 and over living alone it was only 17.6 percent (Federal Statistical Office) - the lowest value of the groups examined. A tablet therefore replaces no visit and dissolves no loneliness. It does lower the threshold for brief contact in between, and that casual contact is exactly what goes missing when the family lives far away.

The most frequent cause of a failed video call is not a software fault but a device that happens to be somewhere else. A good setup therefore begins with a simple question: where does the person sit when they make a call? That place - the armchair, the end of the sofa, the usual seat at the dining table - is permanently assigned the tablet, together with a charging cable that stays plugged in. A heavy stand with a wide base does not tip over when someone knocks against the table by accident, and its tilt can be adapted to the seating height. A wall mount is the calmer solution when the place is settled and cables in the walkway would be a nuisance; it suits kitchens and hallways particularly well. In both cases the same rule applies to height: the top edge of the tablet should sit roughly at eye level, because that is where the camera is. If the device lies flat on the table, you get the familiar view from below. If you are arranging the home for more independence anyway, our article on smart home for seniors offers further building blocks that combine well with the video spot.

Every tablet comes with its own section for accessibility settings, which in practice is barely used - yet that is where the greatest gain sits. Text size can be raised system-wide so that names and buttons inside apps grow along with it. Separately from that there is usually a display size that enlarges icons and controls as a whole; only both sliders together produce a genuinely readable picture. Add stronger contrast, bold text and the option to reduce motion effects, which make reading harder for some people. Touch hold duration matters as well: if a tap is frequently read as a swipe because the hand trembles briefly, the required touch time can be extended. The same holds for the ears: according to the World Health Organization, more than a quarter (WHO) of people over 60 are affected by disabling hearing loss. It is therefore worth setting the media volume firmly, switching the sound to mono where helpful and pairing modern hearing aids directly via Bluetooth so that speech arrives in the ear without a detour. If speech is already a struggle while watching television, our article on clear TV dialogue with a soundbar covers the right adjustments; for larger systems our home cinema and sound setup takes over.

A video call does not need much bandwidth, but it needs a steady one. A few megabits per second are enough for a clean image - provided they are available without dropouts. That is exactly where things frequently fail, because the router stands in the hallway or the study while the armchair sits two walls away. Radio loses considerable strength on its way through masonry, underfloor heating and coated window surfaces, and the faster 5 gigahertz band reaches less far than the older 2.4 gigahertz band. So check reception where the tablet will later stand, not next to the router. If the indicator shows only one or two bars, or a test call breaks off after a few minutes, an additional access point helps more than a new device. Our article on slow wifi and dead spots at home describes in detail how to track down dead spots systematically; if you would rather not tackle that yourself, our wifi optimization takes over measurement, channel selection and building a mesh network. As a fallback, tablets with a mobile module can additionally take a data card so the call still comes about during faults on the fixed line.

You do not have to wrestle with settings, shortcuts and mounts on your own. We come to your home, look for the spot with good light and stable reception together with you, and align the stand or wall mount so that the camera sits at eye level. Then we tidy up the home screen, create one single large icon for the call and set text size, contrast, volume and, on request, the pairing with hearing aids. After that comes the part many instructions leave out: at the same appointment we make a practice call with your relatives, so that everyone involved shares the same experience once and open questions are settled straight away. Finally, an illustrated short guide stays next to the device showing the sequence in a few steps. For beginners we offer this framework as tech help for seniors, while the tablet course at your own pace covers the depth. What an appointment costs is set out in advance on the page about our pricing, and if you would like to talk about your situation first, you can reach us through the contact form.