A smartphone can quietly become one of the hardest things in the house. An update moves the icons, a wrong tap opens something alarming, a notification arrives and won't go away — and a parent who managed perfectly well a year ago starts leaving the phone face-down on the table, because picking it up has begun to feel like a small exam. For someone living with memory changes, it isn't the calls that are hard. It's everything around them.
We've built a small thing that might help, and we're giving it away. It's called My Phone, it's free, and you can set it up today: **valoraparentis.com/my-phone**.
What it does
My Phone is a single, calm screen of large buttons that stay in the same place every time — no menus, no app store, no getting lost. Instead of hunting across pages of icons, the person taps what they need:
- A familiar face to call. Each person is a big photo button — tap the picture of a daughter, a son or a neighbour, and it dials. Recognising a face is gentler than reading a name or remembering a number.
- Camera and Photos — one big button to take a picture, and a simple album to look through a few pictures, one at a time.
- Today — the time, the day, and the quiet shape of the day, so "what's happening now?" has a calm answer.
- Help — a big button that offers to call one person you choose. More on what that is, and isn't, below.
The buttons never move, and after a little while the screen settles back to the same familiar home by itself — so it's hard to end up lost in a menu with no obvious way back.
A quiet carer area
There's a private area where a family member sets it up: add the people to call and a photo for each, choose which buttons to show, write out the day's plan, and add gentle reminders that appear one at a time with a single OK. Tick what fits the person — bigger text, more contrast, button names read aloud, a layout that favours the seeing side after sight is lost on one side — and it arranges itself to match.
Free, and on the phone they already own
No sign-up, no cost, and no new handset to buy. My Phone opens in a web browser, and you can add it to the home screen of the phone or tablet they already have; it opens full-screen and keeps working with no internet once it's open. It's there in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish, and opens in the language of the page you arrived from.
We'll be straight with you: this is an early prototype. We're sharing it openly because a rough tool that helps today is worth more than a polished one that never arrives — and because the people who can tell us what it's missing are families, carers and the person themselves. If you try it, please tell us what would make it better.
What it isn't
My Phone is a simpler way to use a phone — not a medical device, and it doesn't treat, diagnose or slow anything down. It sits alongside ordinary life; it doesn't replace anyone's care.
And the Help button is not an emergency button. It offers to call one person you've chosen — usually the carer — who may be asleep, out, or already on the phone. It reaches no ambulance, no 999 operator (or 112, across Europe) and no medical-alert line, and it is not a substitute for a pendant alarm or a care arrangement. If someone might one day need help in a real emergency, keep whatever alarm or care they already have exactly as it is. We wrote more about why we're careful here: **the Help button is not an emergency button**.
Where to find the real help
- Alzheimer's Society (alzheimers.org.uk) — information and a support line for anyone affected by dementia, with practical advice on everyday technology.
- Dementia UK (dementiauk.org) — Admiral Nurses give specialist dementia support to families, by phone and email.
- AbilityNet (abilitynet.org.uk) — free advice on making any phone, tablet or computer easier to use.
- For a fall or an emergency, a personal alarm or pendant service — through the local council or a provider — is the thing designed for it. My Phone is not.
If My Phone gives one person a calmer few minutes with a phone that had started to feel like a stranger, it has done its job. It's free, it's right here, and it's yours to use and to share.