How often do you see how your grandparents struggle to cope with the most basic tasks? While you can always help them with housework, being dependent on others is definitely not going to do them any good. So why not get them out of this loop and make them enjoy life the way they want? The best way to do this is to introduce them to technology.
The App Store offers a complete list of iPhone apps for seniors, from managing their fitness to shopping for groceries online. So, without further ado, make the best use of these apps and encourage older members of your family to use them for their own comfort.
- whatsapp messenger
- Uber
- Sound
- Medisafe drug management
- CareLinx
- MyFitnessPal
- AARP now
- Magnifying glass + flashlight
- Raise
- Dashlane
- Thumbtack
- Instant heart rate
1. WhatsApp Messenger – Stay Connected with Text Messages
WhatsApp Messenger, owned by tech giant Meta, shines as one of the most popular iPhone and iPad apps for seniors or seniors. This private messaging, audio and video calling app keeps you in touch with family and friends around the world. Use WhatsApp for free to share images, voice notes, files, documents and other content. You can deploy WhatsApp Messenger on your iPhone and iPad without any problems. In addition, the application is available as WhatsApp Web on desktops.
WhatsApp Messenger does not burden you with login usernames or passwords. Instead, you can use it with your phone number and enjoy access to top-notch real-time video and voice calls. The high level of security due to end-to-end encryption is one of the main reasons for the global popularity of WhatsApp.
Status sharing is another important feature of WhatsApp. You can share your daily updates, thoughts, images and GIFs in whatsapp status with your saved contacts. Notably, WhatsApp allows you to make group video and voice calls with up to 8 people at no charge.
pros
- Secure and free individual and group audio/video calls
- Status Sharing for a Personalized Experience
- Real time support
- Cool emoticons and stickers
Minuses
- Privacy can be an issue
- No access to deleted messages
Price: Free
2. Instacart – iOS app for fast delivery
Do you want to make grocery shopping easy for the elderly in your family? Then Instacart should be your first app. This popular online platform boasts a global community of customers who rely on it to purchase products quickly and affordably. In addition, Instacart gives you access to a huge product gallery and fast home delivery for a hassle-free shopping experience.
The user interface of Instacart is simple so that navigation will be easy for everyone, especially the elderly. First, you must enter the zip code in Instacart, add items to your shopping cart, and pay. In addition to online delivery, Instacart also allows you to pick up an order from a local store.
You can buy groceries, daily necessities, household items, electronic gadgets, fresh groceries and more from the comfort of your home with Instacart. Whether it’s something small, like a snack to quench your nightly thirst, or groceries for a month, Instacart delivers everything at affordable prices.
pros
- Contactless delivery
- Helps in creating shopping lists
- Accessing nutrition information and filtering diet data
- Discounts and coupons
- Simple chat with the seller to make changes to the order
Minuses
- Problems with choosing a replacement for items that are out of stock
- Does not warn about the absence of goods when adding to the cart
Price: Free
3. Uber is a convenient email service.
Uber is undoubtedly one of the best apps for seniors. The platform aims to make long and short distance travel easy, safe and economical. With the Uber app on your phone, seniors in your family can enjoy door-to-door rides to any place they want to explore. The taxi rental service considers the safety of its customers to be its top priority.
To use Uber, all you need to do is enter your pickup and delivery locations in the app. The service provider instantly locates the closest Uber driver to your arrival. You can choose between different categories of vehicles. The cost of the trip varies depending on the distance and the type of vehicle you choose.
In addition, Uber allows you to book a ride on demand or help you plan ahead easily. You can report your travel and location information to local authorities and seek emergency assistance immediately.
The app comes with many premium features like Uber Black and UberXL. UberXL lets you ride with extra room for your gang. In addition, you can rate and share feedback and issues with Uber and other customers in the app.
pros
- Professional Driving Services
- Multiple payment options, including bank transfer, UPI, etc.
- Competitive pricing
- Registered drivers
Minuses
- Price increase during peak hours
- Some users have encountered inappropriate driver behavior.
Price: Free
4. Audible is a free iPhone app with audiobooks for seniors.
Audible shines as a world renowned audio streaming service offering a diverse library of audio content for all classes of users. The portfolio includes audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals covering all genres. Elderly members of your family can use Audible to avoid reading books and straining their eyes.
With an Audible subscription, you can access thousands of titles from different areas that interest you. You can stream and download audiobooks even when offline or when you change devices. The platform allows you to create an audiobook library and keep the content in your Audible account forever. In addition, you can arrange downloads, change the listening speed, and enjoy customized audio listening.
Audible has a sleep timer that allows you to automatically set a timer to stop audio. Alternatively, you can connect the app to your Mac, Apple Watch, or car speakers via Carplay.
pros
- New weekly additions
- permanent library
- Access to podcasts and Audible Originals
- Sound credits to get discounts
Minuses
- Expensive in-app purchases
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $7.99)
5. Medisafe Medication Management – Never Miss Your Medication
Elderly people often forget about the timing of their medications. This is where medication management apps like Medisafe come into play. Number one among pharmacists and doctors, Medisafe will never let you forget the right time to take your medicines and pills. Taking the right dose of medication at the right time can help you avoid risks that could otherwise seriously compromise your health.
Medisafe has a simple yet intuitive health management interface that makes it easy to manage medication reminders. The app tracks your vitals like blood pressure, glucose, weight, heart rate, temperature, and more and syncs them with the Apple Health app. You can view your health report and send it to your doctor in PDF format to avoid the hassle of an in-person visit.
In addition, Medisafe allows you to sync your family members’ medication schedules from one account. The platform provides over 20 health metrics, multiple Medtone voice reminders, a choice of color themes, and dota.
pros
- Easy to set up and use medication reminders
- Works without internet
- Manage multiple medical schedules from one account
- Automatic creation of a progress report
Minuses
- Common mistakes
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $4.99)
6. CareLinx – Find the best carers near you
A carer can greatly help the elderly in your family. However, finding a reliable assistant is not an easy task. CareLinx makes it relatively easy to find reliable and affordable home caregivers for the elderly.
The app allows you to get recommendations from experienced care consultants to help you find, interview and hire the best caregiver. In addition, the platform has Care Perks, which gives you access to cost-effective health, vision and dental insurance, as well as attractive discounts on over 10,000 brands.
CareLinx is a comprehensive package offering specialized home care services for the elderly. The list includes communication, personal care, and safe care services. If your grandparents suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease, CareLinx caregivers will offer specialized care. In addition, seniors can use CareRides to explore new places.
At the touch of a button, CareLinx allows you to access home care services for the elderly in your home. The platform has a trained team of caregivers who offer instant, short or long term home care services. Caregivers help seniors with trivial tasks like bathing, toileting, cooking, etc. In addition, CareLinx offers free online care courses through CareAcademy.
pros
- Extensive screening of caregivers
- Medical services on request from nurses and medical specialists
- Accessible
- GPS Entry and Exit Clock
Minuses
- More work for clients regarding screening of caregivers
- No regular office
Price: Free
7. MyFitnessPal – All-in-One Dietitian, Trainer, and Nutritionist
Maintaining good health is important at all stages of life, but becomes even more important as you get older. MyFitnessPal might be a good choice for an all-in-one health app that provides overall body fitness with easy monitoring. In addition, the platform may be one of the best iPhone and iPad apps for seniors planning to use a digital health tracker.
You can easily use the MyFitnessPal app to track your regular physical and health habits. The information collected can help you make healthy food choices and motivate you to work towards your health goals. Download the MyFitnessPal app for a 30-day Premium trial that gives you access to exclusive features. In addition, there is a diverse content library with over 500 useful recipes and workouts.
Easy-to-use tools in the MyFitnessPal app make fast food, nutrition, and fitness tracking easy for seniors. You can record your activities, such as workouts, and customize them to fit your weight management plans. The food tracker allows you to analyze the nutritional value and calorie content of your meals and adjust them according to your health goals.
pros
- Food journal to track and customize your eating habits
- Macro tracker to get the grammatical or percentage distribution of carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
- water tracker
- Join the health conscious community
Minuses
- An exhaustive food database can be overwhelming
- The best features are locked in the Premium version
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $9.99)
8. AARP Now – News and Events
AARP Now is one of the most popular platforms for accessing the latest news related to various areas, local events and other important events. The platform allows you to search for the nearest profitable offers that interest you. Feel free to use your AARP Now digital membership card in a few simple clicks. You can do a lot of things with the AARP Now app, including instant registration for hundreds of upcoming events and programs.
The app showers you with various monetary and non-monetary perks and discounts. You can find new deals every month in the app. You can also take advantage of the exclusive benefits of the AARP Rewards program. If that’s not enough, you can set push notifications for upcoming events so you don’t miss them.
The platform gives bonus points to customers for downloading the AARP Now app. You can increase your points by syncing your AARP Now account with your favorite fitness/health app like the Apple Health app for every activity you do throughout the day.
pros
- Read articles and stream videos from the AARP Now database.
- Manage your AARP membership with iPhone
- Access content without an internet connection
Minuses
- Frequent announcements
Price: Free
9. Magnifying Glass + Flashlight – Fastest LED Flashlight Magnifier
Magnifying Glass + Flashlight is a potential app for iPhone and iPad users to help seniors easily read small print. The app displays the exact image of the content pointed to by the device’s camera. It works as an all-in-one app with magnifying glass, flashlight, and camera snapshot features.
You can zoom in and out by simply dragging your finger. In addition, the application allows you to smoothly increase the text from 1.0x to 10.0x. This tool is useful for reading small text printed on menus, pill strips, medicine bottles, serial numbers on the back of electrical devices, etc.
The app has a reading light feature that activates the built-in flashlight installed on your device for reading in dim light. You can adjust the brightness of the reading lamp using the slider located on the left side of the application. In addition, you can adjust the brightness level of the screen by sliding your fingers sideways. Magnifying Glass + Flashlight offers a high contrast mode that allows you to see even the smallest text clearly. You can save the captured images in the library.
pros
- Convenient interface
- Provides 10x magnification
- First-class image capture
Minuses
- The application turns on the light of the smartphone when opened
- Paid dark mode feature
Price: Free (In-app purchase starts at $1.99)
10. Elevate – train your brain
As we age, body changes occur that often leave us with brain and memory problems. You must have experienced this with your grandparents who often struggle with memory loss, lack of focus, etc. Elevate caters to all such brain-related activities to thrive as one of the best apps for seniors. It is a training program that improves concentration, memory, analytical ability, math ability, and more.
Each Elevate client receives a personalized training program that adapts over time to the needs of the latter to ensure improved results. With over 40 brain games, Elevate allows you to improve your cognitive skills such as concentration, math, accuracy and comprehension. The performance tracker measures your performance and compares it to others. You receive a weekly report highlighting your achievements and opportunities.
Elevate allows you to customize your daily goals, allowing you to choose from 3 to 5 games of your choice. Track your activities with the workout calendar and stay motivated. You can use Elevate Dash to play four additional mini-games and view your scores on your Apple Watch.
pros
- 7 day free trial
- Subscription auto-renewal
- A fun way to learn skills
- Improve your reading, writing and vocational skills
Minuses
- Games require knowledge of grammar
- Limited guide
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $3.99)
11. Dashlane – Never Forget Your Password
Let’s all agree that remembering passwords should be declared a full-time job. Some smart minds have figured this out and have taken it upon themselves to develop password management apps like Dashlane. With Dashlane, you can relax as long as it stores all your passwords securely.
The platform is equipped with high-end encryption that is hard to crack but easy to work with. You can save your details, credit card details, government IDs, etc. and access them with one click.
Dashlane allows you to store multiple passwords without having to worry about any confusion. You have a chance to access all saved passwords on multiple devices. The portal allows you to automatically synchronize data stored on Dashlane with various devices, such as your phone or computer. In addition, you can use the password generator to create strong passwords and change them in a few clicks with the password changer.
Dashlane’s intuitive interface automatically fills in username and password for every app or website you visit. In addition, you can use the Dark Web Monitoring feature to check if your data is on the dark web. In the event of a hack or intrusion by third parties, Dashlane sends instant alerts. You can also surf the web securely with Dashlane’s VPN.
pros
- Huge storage capacity
- Safe and easy to use application interface
- Automatic password completion
Minuses
- Bad customer service
- Less responsive login forms
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $3.49)
12. Thumbtack – Affordable Home Service Provider
Finding the right person to provide home care services is not easy. Incompetence at work or inappropriate behavior is a serious problem that you will definitely encounter when hiring assistants. But now you can use Thumbtack to hire real, trained and trustworthy professionals to work for you.
The platform connects you with home care providers who can perform a variety of tasks on your behalf, including home cleaning, plumbing and repairs, lawn mowing, wedding photography, dog training, massages, etc. You can compare customer reviews offered services, hiring speed and prices of proven professionals before hiring them. Once satisfied with the company profile, you can book the service provider directly using the Thumbtack app or website.
The thumbtack lets you send a message to a professional and ask them for a quote. All Thumbtack service providers go through a rigorous background check before being selected. Plus, you get extra protection with Thumbtack’s money-back and property protection guarantees upon hiring. Plus, you can take advantage of additional on-demand service discounts with the Thumbtack Plus membership plan.
pros
- Correctly tested helpers
- Multiple filters to narrow your search results
- View images, read reviews, and see service provider credentials.
- Quick responses from contractors
Minuses
- Unorganized list of service providers
- Not all reviews are properly verified
Price: Free
13. Instant Heart Rate – Versatile Heart Rate Monitor
Tracking vital signs can prevent sudden health problems that could otherwise endanger your life and hit your pocket. Instant Heart Rate provides a seamless platform for tracking heart rate, blood pressure, stress levels and heart rate variability. You get instant heart health information right at your fingertips.
You can use the Instant Heart Rate app to get your health results by using the camera’s flash or by being in a well-lit area. The algorithm uses the color change of the fingertips to calculate the digits. In addition, the app offers a heart rate activity zone, pulse waveform graphs, and real-time photoplethysmograph (PPG) graphs. This heart rate monitor has two modes: continuous and auto-stop.
You can also check your fatigue and fitness using the StandUp function. With instant heart rate monitor, you can share your health report with others. You also get access to unlimited data and tag storage.
pros
- Easy to use interface
- Check key indicators in real time
- Uses advanced algorithm
Minuses
- Subscription automatically renews unless canceled within 24 hours.
- No cancellation of existing plan during active subscription period
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $9.99)
Summarizing
Technology makes life easier. Using apps to manage your work is something you have to learn. The elderly in our home should not be an exception when considering using the app. Apps can make everyday life easier for older people. That’s why I created this list that will tell you the best iPhone and iPad apps for seniors or seniors.
I understand that learning apps can be challenging for the older generation. So, for the sake of simplicity, I have included only those applications that will be useful to everyone, regardless of their age. I tried to cover all the best apps for seniors. Let me know about any other iPhone and iPad apps you find useful for seniors.