Is there an "I'm OK" app for seniors?

What people mean by an "I'm OK" app

Families search for this idea in a dozen different ways. They all describe the same thing.

• I'm OK app, I'm okay app, "I am okay" app
• Are you okay app, "R U OK" app
• Daily check-in app for seniors
• Safety check-in app for someone living alone
• An app that texts family if Mom does not check in

If you searched any of those, you were looking for a daily check-in app.

How the tap actually works

1. 1You set up the account and pick the time her check-in is due.
2. 2You text her a link. It opens on her phone and her button is waiting. There is no code to read over the phone.
3. 3Each morning she taps I'm Okay. You see it on your phone.
4. 4If the tap has not come by the time you picked, one contact gets a text.

That contact is whoever set up the account, and it can be a sibling, a friend or a neighbor. On the paid plan the text goes to everyone in the family group instead of one person.

What else sits on her screen

• A red I Need Help button, which texts the same contact
• Ask a question, where Maggie answers in plain words and large type
• Her medication reminders, with an I took it button
• Six one-tap call contacts
• A large-type menu that follows her phone's text size setting

What it costs

Free forever: the daily check-in, the missed check-in text to one contact, I Need Help, check-in history, the emergency card, medication reminders, and 10 messages with Maggie. Siblings, caregivers, friends and neighbors join with the family code at no charge, however many there are.

One paid plan is $14.99 a month or $140 a year for the whole family. It texts everyone instead of one contact and adds missed-dose alerts, the document vault, family messages and photos, appointments, and Maggie every day. Your parent and your siblings never pay.

Where the tap is not enough

An "I'm OK" tap tells you that she reached her phone and pressed a button this morning. It does not tell you she is well, and it cannot tell you she fell an hour later.

• It does not detect falls and it does not track her location.
• It is not an emergency service. There is no call center, and it does not call 911.
• If she has memory loss, she may tap without being okay, or forget what the button is for. A daily tap is not a safety plan then. Talk with her doctor.
• Texts go to United States numbers.

If she needs emergency response as well, a medical alert pendant and a check-in app do different jobs, and plenty of families use both.

Choosing between the options

Seven questions worth asking any app, and where each kind of tool fits, are laid out in how to choose a daily check-in app for a parent who lives alone.