Stefan Mileschin

For anybody who has had to support a friend or loved one through an emotional cellphone crisis, rejoice: your savior in the form of OPTiM's Optia smartphone-to-smartphone remote control has arrived. The premise here is that using a friend based system with invites users can add contacts to the app -- think parents, grandparents -- on their Android handset then simply ask for help or offer to help that friend. The recipient clicks yes, and the remote control session begins.

OPTiM's man at the booth, Taiga, took us through the entire process from adding somebody to your set then connecting and finally controlling the phone. The entire ordeal was fairly quick and smooth considering the congestion of the halls here at Mobile World Congress. We'd bet over WiFi or even LTE the experience would be nothing but smoother. Control of the session gives the helper completes access including home button, back, settings and so forth. Scrolling across screens and apps works exactly as it would on your own device, albeit slower -- but even on a poor cellular connection performance is very good. This is a must have app for anybody that regularly helps others or needs help themselves. The best bit? It is currently completely $free on the Play store. Video tour of it all in action is just below the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/25/o...ring-hands-on/