How to look at crap on your phone when you don't have signal this summer - Mashable

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You don't always need a signal to enjoy your phone

Image: bob al-greene / mashable

By Heather Dockray2019-06-08 14:00:00 UTC

Forget sharks and thunderstorms. For people addicted to their phones, there is no greater threat at the beach than the danger of losing your signal.

More than once I've found myself signal-less on the beach with nothing to like or retweet. Sure, there's almost always an extremely dusty copy of The New Yorker sitting somewhere at the bottom of my bag. But who wants to read real reporting when you can instead consume inaccurate gossip blogs about Kristen Stewart's relationships? I don't want to grow my brain at the beach, I want to feed it intellectual poison.  

And I'm over summer beach reads. Why bring a physical book and risk carrying home all that sand in between the pages?

My safe space at the beach is tucked under a towel, trying to get just enough shade and signal so I can look at my phone. In the event I don't have any bars, I often find myself scrolling through hours-old Twitter out of habit/phantom scrolling pains.

Thankfully, there are multiple different apps that can help me and others who are stuck signal-less in remote vacation destinations. 

There's no point in wasting your battery trying to get a single bar. Better to download a collection of apps that can help you with your offline viewing, reading, and scrolling needs.

Here are the best apps for an offline experience.

Pocket users can save articles and keep them in an up-to-date list.

Image: screenshot /pocket

Launched in August of 2007, Pocket — originally known as Read It Later — allows readers to save full articles they can later read offline. Saved articles are are sent to a user's "pocket." Once downloaded, the articles appear in Pocket form, free from all the visual clutter, including ads and videos, that initially surrounded the stories on the page.

Obviously, you'll need to have service in order to initially download the articles. But once you've saved them, you should be good.

I've been using Pocket for years and it's been a lifesaver when I'm stuck underground on the subway without service. I have years of articles stored in the app, and they're relatively easy to find with a simple search. I've also organized my articles by category to form something of a virtual library. It's handy-dandy in situations where I'm looking for a particular genre of article. 

Pocket is available as a web application and on Android and iOS. It's free to download but members can pay $44.95 annually or $4.95 monthly for a premium, ad-free experience.

2. Reading List for Safari and Google Chrome

Read articles offline the old school way.

Image: screenshot / safari

For those of us who don't want to download a separate application, there's always the reading list options available on both Safari and Google Chrome.

On Safari, you can go to your Settings page, scroll down to "Reading List," and then click "Automatically Save Offline." 

On Google Chrome, click "More" in the top right corner of the page, select "More Tools," followed by "Save Page As." Pick where you want to save the page, then click "Save."

As with Pocket, you'll initially have to be online to save these articles. 

I prefer Pocket's visual experience to these reading lists, but for folks who don't want to add another app to their phone, these lists are readily available.

Instapaper provides a highly user-friendly offline reading experience.

Image: screenshot/instapaper

Instapaper is one of the best known apps for offline reading. Like Pocket, Instapaper allows articles to be saved to Kindle, iPad, iPhone, and Android.

The app also includes an awesome bonus feature — the ability to create notes from highlights and then save them for later use, including quoting them in articles.

Instapaper also offers a text-to-speech function for people who prefer to have their articles read to them. 

The app is free to download for Android and iOS, but text-to-speech and other bonus features are only available with a premium subscription, which run $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

Kindle the app provides many of the same functions an actual Kindle does.

Image: screenshot/kindle

Even if you don't own a Kindle, you can give your phone Kindle-like capabilities and download books to be read offline.

Simply download the free Kindle app, available on both iOS and Android. While you're still online, select the book you want do download. Touch it once, and it'll automatically download. You can later find the book by selecting "Downloaded" on the top of the page. It's that easy. 

You'll need to have an Amazon account and purchase the books in order to read them. The price of each individual books varies based on how in demand it is.

Still, it's a worthwhile purchase for folks who already have an Amazon account.

YouTube is easy to access offline.

Image: screenshot/youtube

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to watch your favorite viral video on the beach without any signal. To prevent this from happening, I recommend opening up the YouTube app, selecting the file you want to watch later, and looking for the download option right below the video.

You can later watch the video on the Saved Videos page by going to the home screen, selecting "Library" at the bottom right corner of the screen, and going to "Downloads." 

Not all videos are available to be downloaded this way, and the quality of the download can vary. While some folks download these illegally, I recommend doing the right thing and downloading videos with a YouTube Premium account, at $15.99 a month. 

YouTube is a good option for folks desperate to watch — not read — at the beach.

Netflix has a wide array of movies and shows available for download.

Image: screenshot/netflix

If you're planning to travel by plane and are understandably worried about the airport movie options available, I recommend downloading the Netflix app in advance. 

Just download the app, click the menu button in the upper left-hand corner, select "Available For Download," and tap the download button next to the movie or show you want to download.

The app is available on iOS and Android. Be forewarned: not all movies and shows can be  downloaded, and the app takes up a lot of space. Be sure to eliminate shows from your queue once you're done with them.

Obviously, you'll need a Netflix account in order to download videos, or you can just steal your parents' login.

For book nerds, there's always Google Play.

Image: screenshot/google play

For those opposed to the Kindle App, Google Play is also available for people who want to read a book offline.

You'll need to download the Google Play Books app, select a book for downloading, go to the Settings menu in the top lefthand corner, and select "Download Over WiFi" or "Use Cellular Data." 

Google Play is free to download, but it generally costs a few dollars (anywhere from less than $5 to more than $14) to download a book.

Never leave home without Duck Twitter saved offline on your phone.

Image: screenshot/twitter

There aren't really any good options for folks who want to experience Twitter offline. Still, for people like myself who are addicted to Twitter, you can do what I do — scroll all the way to the top of your feed with your eyes closed. 

Then, when you're on the beach, you can open your eyes and voilá! The tweets appear like magic.

This is a desperate option, but Twitter gives us no choice.

No need to buy a map when you can just save one from Google.

Image: screenshot/google maps

I realize Google Maps is an unconventional choice, but I really enjoy downloading maps off for offline scrolling when I'm bored or stuck in a city with limited to no cell service. 

Simply tap the menu in the top left corner of the app and click on "Offline maps" to access the feature. There, you can select a custom map, or download your local area. 

Whatever your offline interests are — maps, books, or dumb articles from the internet —  make sure to download in advance of losing your signal. You never want to risk dropping it and with it, your precious right to scroll. 

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://mashable.com/article/how-to-browse-internet-with-no-phone-signal/

2019-06-08 14:00:00Z
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