How It Works
One question every morning, and a reply that settles the day.
The check-in is a text message that asks how the morning is going. Their reply, however short, tells you they are up and about. This page is what happens around that: the question, the time, the days with no reply, and the days a reply needs attention.
Fourteen days free. No card to start.
The question asks about them, not at them
Seven questions a week on a fixed schedule, each about the morning: how they slept, whether they have eaten, how the knee is. The wording changes each week so the question does not become wallpaper. If the family names a condition, up to three of the seven are swapped for questions that fit it. Nothing is a test, and nothing asks them to remember a date or a name.
Good morning, Walter. How did the night go?
Slept fine. The knee is complaining but it always does.
Morning, Ruth. Have you had something to eat yet?
Toast and the last of the marmalade. Rain all night, the tomatoes are flat.
Choosing the time
The message arrives at the same time every day, set by the family and changed whenever life changes. Nine in the morning, their time, unless you choose otherwise. The same time is what makes a silence mean something: every step that follows is measured from the moment the message went out.
Pick a time they are usually up and near the phone, not the earliest hour. A message that lands while they are asleep produces a worried family on the first morning.
Two ways to reply, and both count the same
Write a few words
Answer the question, or do not. Tell us about the dog instead. Anything typed and sent closes the morning.
Doing alright. Rained all night, the tomatoes are flattened.
Send one word
On a day they do not feel like writing, a single word is a complete answer. Nothing asks again.
Fine.
And a way to say not today
Replying "not today" or "skip" closes the morning cleanly: no second text, no message to anyone, and no question about their life that day. It is their morning.
What counts as a check-in
Any reply at all. We do not judge the answer, and a short one is never held against them.
When a reply needs attention
If what they wrote mentions a fall, chest pain, or that they are not sure who is texting them, the main contact gets a message straight away with their exact words, never our reading of them. If nobody responds within half an hour, the next person in their circle is told. Nothing is graded and nothing is inferred; the words are passed on, and a person decides.
If there's no reply
This is the part families read twice, so here is the whole sequence with the times attached. Nothing happens fast, and they always get more than one chance to answer.
One hour after the message
A second text, in the same thread
Just checking back in, in the same casual voice. Most mornings end here: the phone was in the other room.
Two hours after
The main contact is told
A short text: no reply this morning, and the last thing they said. Informational, so you can decide whether to ring.
Three hours after
The next person in their circle is told
In plainer words: we still have not heard from them, and the main contact has not responded. Please check on them now. With nobody second, the main contact is asked again in the same words.
Any reply from them stops the sequence at once, and everyone who was told gets a message with what they said. Whoever reaches them first replies CHECKED IN, and the others are told it is handled.
After that, the family decides
Usually that is a phone call, or a neighbor walking over. We do not call emergency services and we do not send anyone to the door. A morning with no reply and no CHECKED IN by midnight is recorded as unresolved and shows in Sunday's summary, because that is the morning most worth seeing.
What this is not
Not a camera or a sensor
Nothing is in their home. The only thing that happens is a text message they choose to answer.
Not a score
No trends, no patterns, no reading between the lines. Their words reach you as they wrote them, and that is all.
Not an app
They never install anything or log in anywhere. Any phone that receives texts is the whole requirement.
Not a medical service
We do not diagnose, advise, or call for help. When a reply needs attention, a person they know is told, and that person decides.
Away days
Some mornings are always spoken for: Tuesday dialysis, Sunday church, the grandchildren's weekend. The main contact can mark them, and a step that falls due inside one waits for it to end instead of going out. For a one-off, they can reply not today, and the morning closes without a fuss.
Try it for fourteen days
Fourteen days free, no card to start, and the first message goes out the morning after setup.
Start Free TrialCancel any time. The messages stop the same day.