Most of us probably have an old phone or two lying around in a drawer somewhere that could be put to better use. At CES 2021, Samsung announced an extension of its Upcycling sustainability program, called Galaxy Upcycling at Home, that will allow older Galaxy phones to be repurposed as useful tools for your home.

Samsung actually announced a program like this back in 2017, but evidently didn't do much with the idea. This time around, the use cases seem a lot more practical and smart home-focused.

In the video, Samsung gives the example of using an old phone as a monitor to detect when a baby is crying, at which point a notification will be sent to the parents' phones. Another example uses the phone's ambient light sensor to detect when it becomes dark out to turn the lights in your house on, which is good for both your pets and home security. There are surely more use cases, but these are the two implementations Samsung has shown off thus far.

We don't know when Samsung will actually add this functionality just yet, but it's nice to see a company working to actually keep its old products useful. Here's hoping we don't have to wait another four years to hear more about it.

Source: Samsung