jitterbug phone for my 91 year old mother?

[nebo113]

My 91 year old mother is pretty tech savvy for someone who is 91 but no longer welcomes change.  Her hearing is about the only real issue she has...and it bugs the bejesus out of her.   She has a flip phone on which she can text, but doing so is a pain, so she doesn't.  When she removes her hearing aids, she's pretty "hearing impaired" and it would be easier for her to text with both my sister and me.  I should add that my sister also wears hearing aids, and listening to the two of them on cell phones is.....  My sister has a smart phone, as do I.

I would like to gently, diplomatically, get her to consider a Jitterbug smart phone.  It will text and I can set it up  so that it uses her current cell phone number.

Do any of ya'll have suggestions, advice, experience with either/both Jitterbugs and older parental units?

[Myword]

My mother, same age, had a small simple black LG with Tracphone  minutes. Not Smart. They no longer make these (mine is from 2011)  and the new ones are more complex, not as easy.  Want to buy a used LG? It takes photos, plays games, texts, video, has contacts, but browser is useless.  So small it easily fits into pockets.

[bopper]

Some cell phones can connect via blue tooth to hearing aids.

[cathwen]

Some cell phones can connect via blue tooth to hearing aids.

That feature may have saved my husband's life.  He was about five minutes into a walk on a trail when an emergency alert came through his hearing aids about an active tornado coming his way.  He ran back to the car and got home safely.  When we went back to that part of the trail a couple of days later, it was covered with downed trees and branches, most enormous.  I shudder to think what might have happened if he hadn't gotten the warning.

I realize this is an irrelevant feature for those who do not wear hearing aids and do not have, or cannot manage, a smart phone.

[Puget]

My about to turn 93 year old grandmother does great with her iPhone. She is still very sharp, so I'm not saying every 90+ year old would take well to it (and she did start in her 80's), but the basic features of texting, emailing, camera, etc. are fairly easy to learn, and she loves asking Seri to look things up for her, compose a text or make a call (especially useful as she has developed some vision problems). She lives alone and wouldn't be caught dead with one of those life alert things, so it's also somewhat reassuring that she could voice activate a call to 911 if she fell or something. Of course, most (all?) smart phones are going to have a voice assistant, but one thing to consider that may make an iPhone a better choice is that it makes it much easier to provide remote  tech support, since at least in our family any one of the kids and grandkids can look at their own phone and talk her through what to do if she needs help. Her local library also has classes and drop in times for help with iPhones and iPads.

[nebo113]

Food for thought.  Thanks, all.

[AJ_Katz]

Until about a year ago, my dad struggled to even answer his smart phone.  It changed once I was able to talk with him about what he found difficult.  He showed me his phone and it was an absolute mess of icons...  even I would have found it difficult to use!  I deleted a bunch of unused icons and switched it into accessibility mode (simple menus, large icons, higher contrast).  I also added direct dial icons for his sisters and me.  Formatting everything in his phone probably took me more than 2 hours.  I never thought I would get him to use text messaging, but I showed him how to do it anyway.  Now he can answer my calls, he can call me back, and he's turned into a texting machine!! 

I've also installed handheld phones in his house that connect via bluetooth to his phone so that if a call comes into his cell phone, he can answer it from any of the phones throughout the house.  Unfortunately, I don't think he uses those phones, so I might not recommend it. 

[nebo113]

UPDATE:  Mother is making her first call on her new Jitterbug smartphone!!!  It's easy to use and now she can text with a microphone.  Thanks to all for your suggestions.

[ab_grp]

I hope that the new phone continues to work out well for your mother! I have been trying to figure out what to do with my mother and her cell phone for years, so thanks for the thread.  I had thought about Jitterbug and didn't realize that they have a smartphone.  My mother currently has a flip phone that's rather old, but it's almost impossible to find a quality flip phone these days, and regular smartphones are definitely a no-go.  I read a bit about the Jitterbug phones and plans thanks to this discussion and didn't realize that (if I am reading correctly) she would need a different phone plan.  She is on my AT&T plan at the moment.   This whole conversation has been very eye-opening!

[AJ_Katz]

I just saw some of the touchscreen Jitterbug phones at BestBuy on display.  They look nice!

Glad to hear you've had success nebo113!

[wellfleet]

I just upgraded my mom's iPhone earlier this week (from a 6 to an 8--she can't handle a bigger one, and the post-8s are all physically larger).The best thing was how seamless the upgrade was on Apple's end--from a usability standpoint, nothing has changed for her and so she doesn't need to relearn anything. I had to set up her email and program the bluetooth to connect to her car, but those were both fast for me.

She loves her iPhone, but starting from scratch would have been a giant effort.

[nebo113]

I hope that the new phone continues to work out well for your mother! I have been trying to figure out what to do with my mother and her cell phone for years, so thanks for the thread.  I had thought about Jitterbug and didn't realize that they have a smartphone.  My mother currently has a flip phone that's rather old, but it's almost impossible to find a quality flip phone these days, and regular smartphones are definitely a no-go.  I read a bit about the Jitterbug phones and plans thanks to this discussion and didn't realize that (if I am reading correctly) she would need a different phone plan.  She is on my AT&T plan at the moment.   This whole conversation has been very eye-opening!

My mother has been on my Verizon plan and while Greatcall/Jitterbug uses the Verizon network, it does its own billing.  She's on auto-pay.

[wellfleet]

My mom had had her own AT&T account, but when I added her to mine instead, my total cost went down--we're saving a significant chunk of change, here. If you haven't priced your family plan for a while, it might be time for a re-look.

[nebo113]

My mom had had her own AT&T account, but when I added her to mine instead, my total cost went down--we're saving a significant chunk of change, here. If you haven't priced your family plan for a while, it might be time for a re-look.

I'm with Verizon,  Checked a few months back and couldn't bring it down.  However, the real reason for the Jitterbug smart phone is screen size and texting.  Both Mother and my sister have hearing issues/hearing aids; my sister texts, and our thinking is that Mother might be less frustrated if she can text the two of us, rather than use voice on the phone.  And at 91, she's learning!!!  Sent me her first text yesterday.