"Speak2 is helpful because we (the grandchildren) are always on our smartphones all day long. Speak2 makes it so incredibly easy just to open the app and send them a message to let them hear your voice and let them know you are thinking of them. Spending 2-3 minutes of our time makes their entire day.”
Meet Chris and His Grandparents
It is hard for grandparents and grandchildren in many families to communicate and stay connected. There are many reasons for this, such as the generation gap, preferring different forms of communication, or living far away from one another.
Chris Smith, Speak2 Family’s co-founder Matt Smith’s nephew, felt this way with his grandparents as he began to start a family of his own. Chris is very active in posting updates about his family, especially his newborn son, on social media and by texting his friends and family. However, like most aging adults over the age of 65, Chris’s grandparents find it difficult to use these technologies to stay in touch. For instance, Chris’s grandmother has challenges viewing screens. This makes it hard for her to use small smartphones for texting and computers for navigating the internet, social media, and email. Because of this barrier, Chris cannot connect with his grandparents as often as he would like. It is a challenge to stay active in each other’s lives like he is with the rest of his family.
Introducing Speak2 Family
Matt Smith noticed this disconnect. Not only between Chris and his grandparents but with the entire family. Therefore, he created Speak2 Family. Speak2 is software that works through Amazon’s Alexa to provide a way for aging adults to connect with their screen-obsessed family, friends, and caregivers. With this technology, aging adults can use their voice to ask Alexa to send and receive messages, manage reminders and activities, consume information, and gain assistance. Meanwhile, family, friends, and caregivers can use their mobile devices with the Speak2 Family App to send voice and text messages, reminders, and even photos and videos. With this form of communication, seniors and the important people in their lives can use the technology that is the most comfortable and natural to them.
Getting an Alexa For Chris’s Grandparents
For Chris, communicating with his grandparents with Speak2 Family was the perfect solution to their problem. His grandparents’ have an Echo Show, allowing them to use both audio and video features such as Speak2 and Alexa’s Drop In. Alexa provides them a way to easily communicate with friends and family using just their voice. In other words, they no longer have to worry about the challenges of navigating mobile phones or the computer. Along with helping them communicate, having an Alexa helps them safely age in place and opens the possibility to integrate with other helpful smart technology. Such as being able to turn lights on and off simply by asking Alexa!
At first, Chris’s grandparents had to navigate learning how to speak into the Alexa device clearly to ask questions and send messages. With time, both of his grandparents were able to communicate with Chris and all of their loved ones through the Speak2 Family App.
Staying Connected With His Grandparents
Chris has been able to connect with his grandparents now more than ever with Speak2 Family. Communicating virtually has been especially important to him, his grandparents, and the family, with the inability to see everyone due to the pandemic. During this time, one of his favorite ways to connect with his grandparents is by sending photos of his newborn son through the Speak2 Family App that they can view on their Alexa Echo Show any time they want.
Not only is Chris able to connect with his grandparents more often, but his siblings and cousins can as well. From his experience, Speak2 “is helpful because we (the grandchildren) are always on our smartphones all day long. Speak2 makes it so incredibly easy just to open the app and send them a message to let them hear your voice and let them know you are thinking of them. Spending 2-3 minutes of our time makes their entire day.” By having the Speak2 App for the family and Alexa for his grandparents, everyone can be more involved in each others’ lives and send messages whenever and however they want!
Learn more about Speak2 and Alexa
Speak2 Family makes it easy for the entire family to connect with their elderly loved ones. To learn more about Speak2 Family and how families can use Alexa, click here.