Questions

No. Any phone that receives text messages is enough, including a flip phone. The daily question about their life comes with a link, and they can tap it or simply text their answer back.

There is nothing to learn. A text arrives, they reply to it. The link opens one page with one box. Replying by text always works, and a one-word reply counts.

Talk to them first, then set it up on the account pages in a few minutes. Their phone gets one text with a link to tap, which confirms the number. Nothing else is sent until you have read exactly what the first message says.

About ten minutes: you, the person we will be texting, the people in their circle, and the time. It saves as you go.

Yes. You create the account and add their number. They confirm it with one tap, so nothing sends to a phone that has not agreed to it.

The time you set, the same every day. Nine in the morning, their time, unless you choose otherwise. You can change it whenever life changes.

It asks how the morning is going, in plain words: how they slept, whether they have eaten, how the knee is. Seven questions a week on a fixed schedule, with the wording changing each week. Never a test.

A reply at any point stops everything and closes the morning, and anyone who was told gets their words at once. The question about their life still follows, unless it is already late in the evening, in which case it waits for tomorrow.

One word is a complete answer. Nothing asks again, and nothing is held against them.

Not yet. Replying by text is the whole of it for now. Voice is something we want to add, but we do not promise dates.

Replying "not today" or "skip" closes the morning cleanly: no second text, no message to anyone, and no question about their life that day.

Questions about their life, one a day, from eight topics: childhood, work, love, family and friends, food, making and doing, the times they lived through, and a wildcard. Written by people, never about dates or names they might not recall.

Anyone in their circle can add one, and it is asked in its turn and marked as yours when the answer comes back. The rest come from the topic with the least in it, so the story fills in evenly.

They leave it, and it is asked once more the next day, then let go. If they say they would rather not, it is dropped at once and that thread ends.

Every answer is kept word for word under its topic. When they mention a name or a place, the next question follows it. Over a year, the topics fill in and the threads join up.

No. Their words are kept as written, by design. The circle can add questions and read everything; nobody, including us, rewrites an answer.

A printed book of the year's answers is planned, with no date yet and nothing to buy now. The archive on the account pages is the book in the meantime, and it is yours from the first day.

One hour after the message, a second text in the same thread. After two hours the main contact is told. After three, the next person in their circle, in plainer words. Any reply from them stops the sequence at once.

The main contact at two hours, then the next person in the order the family chose at three. If there is nobody else, the main contact is asked again. Everyone told is also told when it is resolved, and by whom.

Most are: the phone was in another room. The second text catches most of those before anyone is told, and whoever reaches them replies CHECKED IN so the rest of the circle can stand down.

The main contact can mark the mornings that are always spoken for, and a step that falls inside one waits. For a one-off, they reply not today.

If a reply mentions a fall, chest pain, or that they are not sure who is texting, the main contact gets their exact words straight away. Nothing is graded; a person decides what to do.

No. We do not call anyone and we do not send anyone to the door. The people who know them are told, and they decide. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

The people in their circle, whom you add and who each confirm their own phone. Nobody else. Their answers are never sold, shared, or fed to anything that judges how they are doing.

They should, and the first message says who it is from. Talk to them first: the service works because they choose to answer, and it does not work otherwise.

They are told when someone is added and can ask at any time. Nothing about the circle is hidden from them.

At any moment, by texting STOP. Everything pauses, the main contact is told, and START turns it back on. They are never asked to explain.

The messages run to the end of the month you have paid for, then stop. Nothing already written is erased, and the archive stays as it was.

No location, no contacts, no other apps, no sensors. We hold their name, their number, the time, and what they chose to write.

One monthly price, everything included. Nobody in the circle is charged, and the person answering never sees a bill.

Fourteen days from the morning after setup, with no card to start. On the last day you decide; if you continue, you add a card then.

Any time, from the account page or by phone. The messages run to the end of the month you have paid for.

Whoever set up the account, usually a son or daughter.