The smartphone is becoming an integral part of business in 2015. It has many uses and is particularly helpful for small businesses. In fact, there are things you can do to your smartphone that can turn it into your own office assistant.
There are a range of apps you can download on your phone that will offer you assistance in your daily job. The two standout examples are Siri and Cortana. These are built in personal assistants for your Apple and Windows phones. You can speak to them, and they’ll provide you with the information you need. They’ll also send messages for you and remind you of appointments you have saved. There are Android versions of these apps too, so Android users aren’t missing out. These ‘mobile assistant’ apps are improving with every update. It’s an early form of AI that we could see develop into something big. They’re gaining more knowledge and are more responsive than ever.
You don’t need built in AI to turn your phone into an office tool; there are other separate apps you can download too. Think about downloading a voicemail app to help you with inbound calls. These apps can send a friendly voicemail message to clients who call you when you’re away. That way your clients can leave their details, and you’ll find them on the app. It’s a job you might need to hire someone to do, but now your phone does it for you. Instead of a human taking messages from callers, your smartphone does it.
There are other, practical, apps too that can be downloaded to your phone. You can get scanner apps that scan documents for you. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re just taking a picture of a document, it’s more complex than that. You use the camera on your phone to scan a document that is then saveable in text formats. The document appears on your phone as a pdf file and looks just like a scanned document.
There are also printer apps that make printing documents easier too. These apps let you print things wirelessly from your phone. All you need to do is connect to a printer with WiFi capabilities, and you’re off. If your printer is in a different room, you can print via WiFi on your phone to save time.
Another useful app for your office is a voice-to-text app. Apps like these allow you to speak into your phone, and it converts your voice into on-screen text. Sometimes you’d need an assistant to jot down something you’re saying. Well, now you can just use your phone to do it. If you have a thought, speak into the app and it will be saved as text. The apps like Siri and Cortana do have elements of this built into them. You can tell them what to write in an email or text message and they’ll convert your speech. But voice-to-text apps are the best for audio note taking.
Mobile Apps can turn your smartphone into the ultimate office assistant. But it’s not just mobile apps that are important for business. Check out some apps you should download on your business laptop right now.
(Image via http://goo.gl/xRhSJ6), (Image source: pixabay http://goo.gl/wGgtKh)
