Ever wonder what exactly makes your smartphone smart? In the last couple of years, smartphones have been the trend, we all love our devices, and some of us really can’t go a day without them. And that is quite understandable if you think about it. Our lives revolves around them and they are the ultimate digital companion. They are portable and mobile, so you can carry them everywhere without even paying attention to their weight, they give smooth and direct access to the internet, help us organize our time and activities and aid us in carrying them out. I can’t fully communicate the joy when I say google assistant to play a song and then my phone buzzes off in tunes and I could just as easily say google stop playing music, then silence. Awesome! But the question is what exactly makes a smartphone different from any other types of phone, in short, what makes them smart?
What Makes your Smartphone Smart
While the distinction between smartphone’s and similar mobile devices are not specific but blurred across the years, I have nonetheless put together a couple of features that distinguish smartphones from other types of mobile phone and similar devices like PDAs. Let’s get into it:

 1. Basic cellphone features plus extra

Basic phone features include ability to make and receive calls, send and receive messages usually SMS. While smartphone’s have all this basic cellular features they offer more. Thanks to the internet and smartphone’s ability to access it easily, you can do more than call and text as a means of fast communications with your loved ones, you can send and receive mails, share media files like pictures and videos with your friends, family and colleagues. You can make video calls and chat across several multiple platforms. All this is possible thanks to better developed network services, applications and software as well as the phone’s hardware itself all working together in sync and harmony on an operating system which is discussed below.

 2. An Operating System (OS)

In the modern era, a typical smartphone is defined by its operating system, that’s why you can tell an iPhone from an android. Some operating systems are open ended and can support a variety of phones from various manufacturers a good example is Google’s android OS. Other operating systems are only compatible with specific hardware devices which is usually developed by the same company like the iOS of IPhone and BBOS of Blackberry. The OS acts as an interface between the phone’s hardware and application software. In other words, the operating system allows your apps and phone to communicate and interact, this also means that the operating system defines the way you experience your device and how effective your interaction is. Most operating systems usually have an app store developed along with them from where you can get a wide variety of applications to run on your device. The stores are usually OS-specific i.e. apple store for iOS and Google Play Store for android.

 3. Virtual Assistant

Most smartphones these days come with an in-built virtual assistant, again this is OS-specific. Siri for IPhones and Google Assistant for android devices. These Virtual assistants help out in a variety of ways, thanks to their ability to run on voice commands, you can ask it to perform basic phone actions like to make a call to more involved actions to the google stop playing music command I mentioned earlier. Virtual assistants can now perform a wide range of functions and carry out commands based on voice commands alone, allowing a hands-free interaction with your smartphone. You could get them to translate, read out texts, play and stop songs, organize items, set reminders and alarms and so much more. Personally, I sometimes feel the Virtual assistant is a smartphone’s voice.

 4. Multimedia

Yes! Media, your smartphone is a mini home theatre. You can access all forms of media on your smartphone. Photos, Videos, Music… your phone runs them all. You can create new pictures with your phone’s camera, receive and share others. Buy, download and even stream songs via the internet. Smartphone’s typically come with better developed cameras, speakers and wide screens which you can usually run virtual ‘qwerty’ keyboards for typing and viewing large resolution files. They are also built with large storage spaces and support external storage drives. All these hardware upgrades enable smartphones to view and play high quality media, all for your consumption. Beautiful, isn’t it?

 5. File Sharing

In addition to better means of communication among loved ones and better and portable access to entertainment media, smartphones allow you to share them. You can upload and download files and documents, stream songs and videos, send and receive digital files, Social media platforms now support a wide range of file sharing features.

Conclusion

Smartphones are amazing devices and we have grown so comfortable and attached to them as they make our daily activities easier, ease and encourage communication across several spheres of life including business and commerce.