Modern smartphones have greatly improved the quality of life for everyone. But integrating mobile devices in your day-to-day lives becomes difficult as you grow older. Maybe it is due to the lack of technological know-how, or maybe you just havent got to it? In fact, according to a study by the Pew Research Centre, about 59% of individuals from the 65- to 69-year-old age bracket have smartphones. And this percentage drops as you get older, so much so that only around 31% of senior citizens from the 75- to 79-year-old age bracket use mobiles. So, why should you use it? Mobile phones have a huge potential to improve your quality of life in areas like healthcare, autonomous living, decreased segregation, closer relations with family and friends, easy financial management, and much more. And all that with the help of a small device that can fit in the palm of your hand. Due to these enormous benefits, there has been an influx of Senior-friendly Phones in the smartphone market. As they have seniors as their target audience, these phones have various features and benefits that aim to simplify phone navigation, without altering the overall experience of a smartphone.
Important Features of Senior-Friendly Phones
Most senior-friendly phones are tailor-made to suit your specific requirements, by using personalized design interfaces, health monitoring, and so on. Let's look at all of the features which make these phones a much better choice for elderlies:
-
Memory Aids
Do you often miss out on important appointments? These mobiles will assist you with your everyday routine by letting you set reminders for appointments, store address book with photos, personal, and financial information along with alarms.
-
Personalized design
In addition to providing standard designs and menus, these devices allow you to personalize your phones to make it easier to operate.
-
Haptic aids
Haptic aids aim to safeguard the devices against damages like falling and breaking by providing a grip made of rubber.
-
SOS features
Panic button, emergency contacts, and speed-dial SOS features are the most important ones for your phone. This ensures that you get in touch with the important people in times of need.
-
Visual and Hearing Aids
Senior-friendly phones come with large keypads and louder inbuilt speakers to assist you, in case you have hearing or visual deficiency. The Large screen makes viewing and using the phones easier. This ensures that the icons are large and one can easily identify the feature they want to use.
-
Health Monitoring
Remote care services and apps are a must for aged people. They constantly monitor your health. This helps in ensuring that all vital health parameters are under check. Whenever one of those parameters exceeds the normal range, the apps notify the user. This allows you to be preemptive and seek timely medical attention.
-
Safety and Privacy Features
This feature is crucial for everyone. These devices use presence and image sensors to monitor and analyze your activities and situations. If any abnormal activity is detected, your contacts are notified. As passwords are easily accessible in senior-friendly phones, there is a provision for a master lock which ensures privacy. You just have to remember the password.
-
Voice Command
It is important to have phones with a speech-to-text feature as you can get things done with minimum typing. This can also come in handy for people with large hands for whom typing on small screens can be difficult. With voice command, you can make calls, ask for information, and even dictate texts.
-
Internet Services
The Internet allows you to access everything with just a click of a button. So, these phones let you install and use various apps that allow you to perform most tasks on the phone, without having to step foot outside. One can automate bill payments and can meet other daily needs using these apps.
-
Easy Access to Information
It is essential for you to store, manage, and know all the particulars of your health, house, and other personal interests. Look for a senior-friendly phone which allows ease of access to information letting you track and manage all these details.
Difference between Normal Phones And Senior-Friendly Phones
Most electronic devices are designed keeping the young generation in mind. These youngsters who grow up using these gadgets, seldom have problems with adapting to new technology. That, however, might not be the case, in general, for people of all ages. Do you have issues operating electronic devices, especially those which are small in size? Maybe the software, as well as the hardware, feels unmanageable? Small screens, keys, navigation controls, new navigation designs, and constantly evolving software interfaces may not appeal to you and make operating a phone pretty hard. Senior-Friendly phones aim to eliminate all these problems for you. It ensures that you live an independent, safe, and upbeat life, regardless of whether you live by yourself or not.
Types of Senior-Friendly Phones
Just like normal smartphones, senior-friendly phones can be of different types; classified based on the features they come with. It is important to know all the different types so that you can make the right choice based on your needs. So, let's look at all the different types of senior-friendly phones available in the market:
-
Visual Aids Phone
Visual Aid phones facilitate better viewing by providing larger keypads and buttons, better color schemes, and text-to-speech features as high priority specifications. The focus here is to promote larger and enhanced display for easy viewing.
-
S.O.S. Safety Devices
These devices have an inbuilt GPS locator in them. This feature helps you share your location with your loved ones so that they are able to reach you in case of an emergency. Some phones even have fall detectors in them that help you get in touch with nearby hospitals or emergency centres.
-
Hearing Aids Phone
Hearing aid phones come with features which enhance the audio quality for easier hearing. They have various inbuilt features such as volume control, incoming call alerts, text-to-speech, and voice command to simplify things for seniors.
Top 3 Best Senior Friendly Phones
Now that you know the benefits of senior-friendly phones and the different features to look for when choosing one, here is a list of the some of the best senior-friendly phones in the current market:
Senior Citizen Mobile Grand - Easyfone
Easyfones Grand is a senior citizen oriented device which has sound boosters for easy hearing. Its sleek white color lends a premium feel to the entire phone. Reminders can be set easily and remotely, with the CareTouch application. It also has a function that can include up to 8 emergency contacts, with a dedicated SOS key. The phone has dimensions of 12 x 5.5 x 1.1 cm and weighs 109g. The screen of the phone is 2.4 with a high resolution of 320 x 240 TFT color screen. The device comes with special earphones with medical grade silicon tips and a cradle charger. You can buy the Easyfone senior citizen phone at INR 3,990.
Senior Citizen Mobile Royale- Easyfone
Easyfones Royale is a senior-friendly flip-phone with a classy matte chrome interior and an elegant exterior design. The phone has a provision to set reminders for doctors appointments or social events remotely with the CareTouch application. It can save up to 8 Emergency or Favourite Contacts with pictures at once and can block 20 callers. There is a dedicated SOS key for emergencies. The phones dimensions are 10.2 x 5.1 x 2.1 cm and it weighs 99.8g, with a phone screen of 2.4 and a high resolution of 240 x 320 TFT color screen. It comes with a cradle charger.
Tigertechs Smart SOS Tracker is one of the best senior-friendly phones in today's market. It has an SOS button that simultaneously dials and connects you through for a two-way call to your emergency contacts.It has a wearable safety and tracking device (4cm X 4cm and 22 grams) that you can use to locate and keep in touch with your loved ones. It uses real-time tracking technology by using Triple Mode Positioning Technology of GSM, LBS, and WiFi. You can set a specific area as the safe zone. In case you move out from the specified safe zone, you will be notified about the same. The unit has a contemporary and sleek design with an inbuilt powerful Lithium-Ion Battery that lasts for 2-3 days in the 'Active Mode' and for 4-5 days in 'Battery Saver Mode.' The package contains one GPS-Enabled Smart Personal SOS Button Tracker and a charging socket.Available in ruby red, teal, and silver colors, the mobile device uses only one active 2G GSM micro SIM. Also, the phone is covered under warranty and customer support is provided for 12 months after purchase of the device.The Tigertech Smart SOS tracker is priced at INR 4,499.
