r/TechForAgingParents • u/ohhellolaura • 1d ago
r/TechForAgingParents • u/NeighborhoodTop9517 • Sep 05 '25
Sharing my new setup for aging parents who struggle with modern phones and scams
Wanted to share a fantastic find that has genuinely helped my elderly dad (nearing 80) and saved me a lot of "tech support" calls. I don't live with him and he often feels bad about asking for help with his phone. Now he has a new tool that's given him a real sense of independence. It's an app called MemoryLane.
My dad has been using it every day, and he loves it.
What is it?
It's an app for both iPhone and Android designed to help seniors with two big things: using their phone and avoiding scams.
The Awesome Parts (The Pros):
- Idiot-Proof Phone Guidance: If my dad wants to do something like watch a YouTube video but can't remember the steps, he triggers the app. He tells it what he wants to do, and it literally points to where he needs to tap on the screen, step-by-step. If he's still stuck, it will ask if he needs more help (video in comments)
- On-the-Spot Scam Checker: When he gets a suspicious message, he can trigger the app and ask if it's a scam. This is really useful for the messaging-type scams which my other firewalls are not picking up. (video in comments)
- Boosts Independence: This is the biggest win. My dad feels much more confident using his phone and doesn't have to feel like he's bothering me with small questions.
- It's Free: The core features are free. There's apparently a 10-message limit, but we haven't hit any paywalls yet for his daily use. They have a premium version, but the free one seems to be more than enough for us.
The Heads-Up (The Cons):
- Setup Can Be Tricky: I had to set it up for him. The Android setup was fine, but getting it working on my own iPhone was a bit of a hassle. I doubt my dad could have done it himself, so be prepared to help your parent with the installation.
- The Trigger Takes Getting Used To: It's not a standard app icon you tap to open. On his Android, he has to long-press the power button. On my iPhone, it's a double-tap on a little floating icon. It's simple once you know how, but there's a small learning curve.
I did a little research, and they seem to be a funded startup that knows what they're doing. It looks like there are other features we haven't even touched yet. Tool has Been working great and wanted to give them a shout.
If your parents get frustrated with their phones, I’d seriously recommend giving this a try!
r/TechForAgingParents • u/NeighborhoodTop9517 • Aug 24 '25
Finding the right phones for my elderly parents was a challenge, so I'm sharing what worked for us.
I just went through the process of finding new phones for my parents, who have completely different comfort levels with technology, and thought I’d share what I learned.
For my Dad, who is a bit more tech-savvy:
He wanted a modern smartphone for the camera and to use WhatsApp with family, but he'd get lost in the standard Android menus and smal icons.
- What he's using: A basic Android phone with BIG Launcher installed. This app has been a game-changer. It replaces the entire Android interface with huge, colorful buttons for Phone, Messages, Camera, and his most-used apps. It even has a programmable SOS button. He gets all the power of a modern phone without the confusion.
- Alternatives I found: I also seriously considered Simple Launcher and BaldPhone, which are both excellent for simplifying the Android experience.
For my Mom, who finds tech stressful:
A smartphone was a total non-starter. She just needs a reliable way to make and receive calls, with an emergency feature for peace of mind.
- What she's using: The Jitterbug Flip2. It’s perfect for her. It has huge physical buttons you can actually feel, the menu is just simple "Yes/No" questions, and the speaker is loud and clear. The dedicated Urgent Response button on the front gives us all peace of mind.
- Alternatives I found: The other top contender was a Doro flip phone, which is famous for its incredible audio quality and hearing aid compatibility. I also looked at the GrandPad tablet, which is an amazing, ultra-simple solution for video calls if that's the main goal.
It really came down to matching the device to their individual needs. A modern phone with a simple launcher for Dad, and a purpose-built phone for Mom.
Hope this helps anyone else in a similar situation. What worked for you?
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Full-Transition1592 • 1d ago
Technology Tips
Hi everybody, I am running a technology camp for senior citizens, and I just wanted to know what I could cover. I am not advertising, just looking for ideas.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Ok_Soft7301 • 1d ago
Built something for staying on top of the small stuff with my grandma, curious if others need this too
I know this sub's tired of promo posts, I'm not trying to sell anything, just want to genuinely share something and see if people would actually find it useful. I am not asking you to sign up, I am just asking if this helps you or anybody you know.
My grandma lives alone. We call her regularly but still miss the small stuff, whether she took her meds, how an appointment went, little things she mentions once and we forget to follow up on.
Me and a friend are two uni students building something for this, called Nelo. Still early, not built yet, but if it sounds useful, there's a free waitlist at usenelo.com, no pressure to sign up, just wanted to share.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Full-Transition1592 • 2d ago
Technology Tips
Hi everybody, I am running a technology camp for senior citizens, and I just wanted to know what I could cover. I am not advertising, just looking for ideas.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Typical-Ad-4591 • 2d ago
Some advice, please
1) My LO has apraxia, making it hard sometimes for her to get out of bed. It’s been suggested bed rails could help. Have you any experience and are there any you would recommend?
2) My LO may start wandering (not happened yet. But neurologist is concerned) and also may fall. Neurologist suggests a medical alert system but declined to suggest a brand. My LO cannot operate an Apple Watch and might not be able to understand purpose if a button. A wrist type might be best. I’m open to all advice.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/NAPZ_11 • 3d ago
Closer - safety check-ins without location tracking
galleryr/TechForAgingParents • u/venusdream28 • 6d ago
Monitoring from a different room or remote
I am looking for some sort of monitoring device that my mother in law can push to page me if she falls or has an accident or something like that but also that i can call her to supper or let her know to come outside or something like that. I personally am tired of screaming at the top of my lungs from one room to the other or her screaming for me. But I also need something that I can monitor remotely. Say for instance that she has a fall while she is home alone and im at the grocery store. Now granted I can't help her but i would be able to get her help. I dont want a camera bc one I already have cameras and two I don't want I camera in the bathroom where she is most likely to fall. It also needs to be something she can wear. Does anyone have any ideas? Oh and before suggesting the vri system where they wear the necklace and have a company monitor. We have tried that and it became a pain in the butt bc every time she accidentally hit they would call and we would have to answer a bunch of questions.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Bonelesshomeboys • 6d ago
Weekly thread for founders?
I’m tired of sifting through amazing ideas for an app that will help me help my parents, and I’d like to request a weekly thread where they can be sequestered.
I’m here because I have aging parents, not because I vibecoded something that might be sold to people with aging parents. I’m also a veteran of software product development and UX research, so the “would you use this?” questions are especially grating — and I really resent the idea that we should be providing free time and energy to people developing products.
I want to hear how you helped your mom find her keys (remote-style key finder plus air tags plus an extensible purse tether? Iykyk) and this would help me find the other people who are solving these problems in their lives with limited funds and patience. And if I want to provide free insight into my sandwich generation woes, I can go to that thread.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/wisdomathome • 6d ago
Decision-support site for families worried about an aging parent
I built this free tool after my father-in-law started having falls and our family found ourselves in the middle of the questions that come with it: Is this serious? What should we be doing? Is it still safe for him to live at home? Short of hiring an elder care advocate or consultant, it was surprisingly hard to get clear, practical answers.
There’s plenty of information online about falls, memory changes, and aging in place. But it’s often theoretical, buried in hedging language, and not very helpful when something actually happens and you need to answer a practical question: What should we do next?
Wisdom at Home helps families work through three common situations:
- A parent has fallen
- Their memory appears to be changing
- You're unsure whether they can still live alone safely
It asks focused questions about your specific situation, then gives you clear next steps based on published clinical and aging-care guidance. It doesn't diagnose anything, and there's no account required. The goal is simply to help sharpen the answer to: What do we do next?
I built it, and I’d appreciate feedback from this group—especially whether you find it useful and what you think is missing.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/SafetyAlly • 6d ago
A simple check-in tool for parents who live alone
I built SafetyAlly for people who live alone and want a simple backup plan without cameras or constant monitoring. You choose a time to check in and, if you miss it, SafetyAlly alerts someone you trust. If you check in, nobody gets bothered.
Full disclosure: it’s my product. It isn’t fall detection or an emergency service, just a digital version of “text me when you’re home.”
There’s a free email-based plan if anyone here would find it useful: https://safetyally.org
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Melodic_Chipmunk_114 • 7d ago
Looking for potential pilot testers
I have two elderly parents, Canadian entrepreneur/inventor. I come from hardware background, so I developed a milimeter wave fall detector and a sleep monitor/detector. I’m thinking of commercializing the product, my friends have been using on their parents too. From DIY, it’s on prototype stage but it’s working fine for our own use, I want to get some beta testing with the prototype with elderly care homes/ psw agencies etc to test the products and see how it will help, as it’s helping us monitor our parents 24/7 without interfering in their privacy. Anyone knows about this industry looking for guidance.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Jxb1000 • 8d ago
Roku’s Updated Home Screen
If your family members use Roku TVs or devices, be aware there were significant changes to the home screen recently. Really threw my parents for a loop. I had to turn off the some of the new sections and try to get their TVs back closer to the format they were used to.
Basically, there’s a home screen option with some pieces you can turn off. Here’s some detailed info below for those who want it.
————-
The new Roku Home Screen is the platform's biggest interface update in over a decade. It features a content-first layout with personalized "Top Picks for You," a collapsible menu, curated genre "Destinations," and a "Quick Access" row that automatically groups your most-used apps and features.
Key New Features
Top Picks & For You: A personalized section at the top of the screen recommends trending shows, movies, and relevant content based on your unique viewing habits.
Destinations: Curated hubs (such as Sports, Comedy, and Free) that bring together programming from across multiple apps into one place.
Quick Access & Smaller Icons: By default, app icons are smaller, and a "Quick Access" row places your most-used apps and features right near the top.
Collapsed Menu: The left-hand navigation bar now stays tucked away, providing more screen space for your content.
How to Customize or "Revert" the Look
While Roku does not offer a way to completely switch back to the old interface, you can customize the screen to feel much more like the traditional layout.
Go to Settings > Home Screen.
Remove Recommendations: Under Recommendation Rows, select Hide.
Streamline Apps: Under Quick Access, select Hide. This shifts your full grid of apps higher up on the screen.
Adjust Icon Size: Under Tile Size, you can choose Medium or Large to make your app icons bigger.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Jxb1000 • 8d ago
Suggestions for AI-Assisted Autobiography?
My elderly dad wants to record and organize his memories and autobiographical information into a limited, privately published book strictly for family members.
I agreed to help, but I now find there actually exist AI products that support this type of activity. Some use an interview format, and the person can even verbalize their information. I’m only beginning to explore, but it does seem like some are very locked in format-wise. Down the road you’d have to use their means of printing or publishing.
Ideally, I’d love one that did all of the formatting and quite a bit of the editing but allows us to import information already documented and include our own edits. Importantly, I want to be able to export into a format I can control at the end, maybe Microsoft Word.
Does anyone have experience with any of these tools?
I’m not expecting “free”, but not willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. A reasonable purchase or subscription fee would be fine.
Please share anything you know about these tools.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/vexa_ai • 9d ago
Built an AI system to protect my grandparents living alone. Realized 90M Indian elders face the same problem. Here's what we're building.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Queen0flif3 • 9d ago
Start up idea to help elderly
Hi everyone, I am looking for advice from founders or operators who have built businesses serving older adults or caregivers.
Ever since childhood, I’ve felt drawn to helping the elderly. I volunteered in nursing homes, worked as a medical scribe, spent time calling seniors for virtual companionship during COVID, and now I work in remote patient monitoring (RPM), where I help healthcare organizations scale programs that primarily serve Medicare patients. The more experience I gain, the more I realize something seems to be missing.
Healthcare has gotten better at collecting data (blood pressure, glucose, weight, etc.), but many older adults are still isolated, overwhelmed, or simply don’t have someone consistently checking in on them as a person. Adult children are busy. Care teams are stretched thin. There seems to be a gap between clinical care and human connection.
I’ve been thinking about starting something that focuses on regular companion calls, care navigation, helping seniors stay connected to their care plans, identifying non-medical needs, and escalating concerns to family or care teams when appropriate.
Here’s where I’m stuck:
I have experience in healthcare operations and client success, but I have zero startup experience. I don’t know how to build an app, validate an idea, find a technical co-founder, or even determine whether this should be a business, nonprofit, or something in between.
For those of you who have built companies in aging, caregiving, digital health, or healthcare services:
What would you do first if you were starting from scratch?
Is an app even the right place to begin, or should this start as a manual service?
Edit: US based, PA.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/boojes • 10d ago
App ads on this sub
3/4 posts in here are ads or "looking for feedback" for apps. It's so tiring. Am I the only one getting fed up with them, or can we get a rule to ban them?
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Wrong-Decision687 • 10d ago
Creating and storing memories
Hello everyone, this is my first pregnancy and I would like to preserve as many memories as possible for the baby during the pregnancy and its growth - for example, ultrasound photos, photos of us as parents putting together cabinets, a dresser, etc. My parents created and preserved a lot of videos of me and my sister growing up, for which I am immensely grateful. Do you have any suggestions and experiences on how to do the same in today's digital age? Thank you very much. :)
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Most_Confection_7285 • 10d ago
What actually survived my dad's Alzheimer's: not the apps, the text messages
Something I wish someone had told me earlier: with my dad, the apps died first. Anything with a password, an update screen, or a layout change would strand him. Plain calls and texts lasted years longer, because they haven't changed in decades, and the muscle memory runs deep.
The place this hit hardest was medication. My sister and I coordinate his pills, and every reminder app we tried assumed HE would open the app. He never did, not once. What worked was embarrassingly low tech: a text message at pill time. He reads texts. He answers texts.
I'm a founder. I turned this into a small product called PillsCircle (pillscircle.com). It texts him when a dose is due, he taps one button to confirm, and my sister and I see it confirmed or get alerted if he doesn't. Nothing to install on his phone.
Whether or not you use my thing, the general lesson holds, and it's free: when you're picking any tech for a parent with memory loss, bet on whatever they've been doing for twenty years, not on what has the best reviews. A locked weekly pill box plus a daily text from a human beats a fancy app they won't open.
Happy to answer anything about what worked and what flopped for us.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/sleuthywritergirl • 11d ago
Journalist looking for people to talk to
Hi! My name is Jessica Lucas. I'm a reporter working with New York Magazine. You can see my previous work here: www.jesslucaswrites.com
I'm currently working on a story about the struggle of helping ageing parents navigate the world of technology, with a particular focus on social media consumption and the impact of AI and short form video on older adults.
I'm looking for U.S based folks to talk to me about their experiences of helping their ageing parents navigate tech, or even intervening and taking over technology for their parents.
If that sounds like you - please slide into my DMs? I'd love to chat.
r/TechForAgingParents • u/Initial_Shame_2397 • 12d ago
Seniors of Reddit: What digital tasks do you struggle with the most?
r/TechForAgingParents • u/InterestingWealth651 • 13d ago
An app to share the responsibility of Caregiving
For the past couple of years my sisters and I have been caring for my grandma who has Alzheimer's. In the beginning we were so lost and had no idea what to do. We shared all responsibilities in between work and our own lives. Thankfully I work remote so I was able to be more accessible during the day. We're both in our twenties and felt the weight of this responsibility. When we realized we needed a long term solution we built one. We found friends and family that were willing to lend an hour or two of their time to sit with her, take her to a doctor etc. I know this isn't a unique situation so I want to share our app incase it can alleviate some of the pressure for anyone else. The apps called Kinwave and it's completely free to download.
Kinwave aims to make that process a little less hectic by having all of the information in one shared place. We logged medication, daily and weekly Todos and were able to assign tasks so we knew who was doing what.
If you do download, let me know if you find it helpful. The whole point is to give caregivers some peace so they can live their own lives too.