How can I communicate with someone that only has a tablet?

Question

My wife and I recently ran into an unusal situation: She left her phone in my car, which I didn't know. I, of course, drove off with it. So we couldn't communicate by standard voice or text.

She did, however, still have our tablet with her. So I was wondering: what are the various ways that a person with a tablet can communicate with a person that has an Android phone (so never mind "borrow another phone" type answers)? I'd like as many different solutions as possible since, in this situaion, certain methods of commication (such as email) might be ignored as unexpected.

Answer 1

A Tablet has several methods that it can utilize to make a connection into the world:

• WiFi Connection

• Data Connection

• Bluetooth

• USB

• NFC

Both WiFi and Mobile Data Providers connect into the Internet. Any service that uses such a connection may send messages from one device to the other. Email and Instant Messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram can be named here.

Two internet capable devices can also connect through Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a direct connection between two devices, with no router, switch or modem in between. Two devices can communicate through Bluetooth. There are some Bluetooth Messengers out there, even though it does not make much sense (when the two devices are close enough for bluetooth to work, why don't you just communicate directly?). PLUS, there are so-called Bluetooth Hotspots, where you can log onto a hotspot using Bluetooth instead of WiFi.

A Tablet can communicate with a device it is connected to via USB. This option allows 'USB Tethering' for example. In theory, you could also directly connect two phones with USB to enable communication between them.

NFC is short for "Near Field Communication" and does exactly that. NFC sensors are very weak and only work when in very close proximity to another NFC sensor (within another phone). This is a wireless communication with a range of 1 to 10 centimeters.

These are all options a modern phone has to communicate with other devices.

Answer 2

Here's a couple of answers to start with:

• Email
• Hangouts (or any other IM app), which usually require the other person to be logged in.
• Glympse - Send a check-in glympse to their mobile number with a message. They'll get it as a text.
• using some SMS gateway either via Web (browser) or a specific SMS app supporting this
• using a messenger app like Tango, Skype, or LINE

Answer 3

Facebook Messenger. Of course, the tablet needs to be connected to the internet.