If a parent lives on their own, you've probably wished for something simple: a way to know, each day, that they're alright — without ringing to check, and without asking them to learn anything complicated. A daily check-in is exactly that, and it's worth understanding how a good one actually works before you decide whether it's for your family.
What the person does — almost nothing
This is the test of whether a check-in will really be used: it has to ask next to nothing of the older person. With My Companion, their phone shows one friendly question, "Are you okay?", with a big button — a gentle reminder appears at a time the family chooses (say nine in the morning), though they can tap whenever suits them, earlier or later. They tap I'm okay, and they're done. Two seconds, once a day. There's no feed to scroll, no menu, no password to remember; that single tap is the whole of their part.
It sits on the phone they already own, as an ordinary icon on the home screen. No new gadget to buy, nothing clipped to a wrist, nothing that marks them out as needing minding.
What you see — a calm yes, or a gentle nudge
On your phone, the picture is just as simple. When they've checked in, you see that all's well: a quiet green checked in, nothing that needs your attention. You don't have to do anything, and most days you won't.
If the check-in time passes with nothing, the app doesn't sound an alarm. It reminds them first, quietly, in case the morning simply got away from them. If there's still no tap, it lets the family know a check-in was missed — so you can call or drop by. It never contacts the emergency services and never replaces a pendant alarm or a care line; it tells the people your parent has chosen, and what happens next is up to you. Step by step, gently, never a klaxon.
There's also one calm place for the family to sort the everyday things between yourselves — a lift, the shopping, a small errand — so the coordinating doesn't live in a dozen scattered texts. The app organises the people; it doesn't send anyone round.
Setting it up, and what it costs
Setup is a ten-minute job, most of it a nice one: you sign in with a link we email you (no password), add your parent, pick the check-in time, and send them a link to open on their phone. Doing it together once — over a cup of tea — is the whole of it, and it's the same afternoon-in-the-room principle as helping a parent from afar: get the start right and the rest looks after itself.
It's a small monthly subscription with a free trial — paid, because it's private-by-design software rather than something that sells your data, and the reassurance is worth a little to most families who've spent months quietly worrying. If the whole point for you is knowing they're okay without hovering, that's the thing it's built to do — plainly, and without asking your mum or dad to become good with technology.