In Spain, nearly half a million mobile phones are sold each year mainly aimed at older adults. This population sector chooses these devices for their simplicity and ease of use when staying in touch with their close environment; however, many times they are unable to configure their settings or customize the various options they include. Faced with this situation, SPC, as a leading mobile phone brand in Spain and expert in the senior segment, has developed a pioneering app to help and care for older adults or those less familiar with technology remotely. How? Through remote management of their “dumb” phones.
What is SPC Care?
This is how SPC Care was born, a technological innovation never before developed that will allow family members or loved ones of older adults to remotely intervene in the settings and management of their phone to adapt it to their personal needs and receive alerts in certain situations that could compromise the senior’s well-being. This initiative is exclusive to SPC brand mobile phones and is already fully implemented in SPC POLARIS: the first basic phone for seniors launched on the market fully integrated with the app, with other models to be added as the brand updates its catalog.
What benefits does SPC Care offer to older adults?
The new app will improve and facilitate the relationship of older adults not only with technology but also with their loved ones. It shows the location without the senior having to do anything, just carry their SPC phone (this option is only available if the senior’s phone has GPS).
With SPC Care, nothing changes for our seniors, but everything changes for their family members who can now help them use their phone as if they were by their side without compromising their autonomy and strengthening their independence. All this creates a safe environment for older adults who also feel useful and part of a digital society that includes their family and loved ones.
What benefits does SPC Care offer to family members?
Using it is very easy: after downloading from the Play Store or Apple Store, the app itself intuitively shows the three steps to follow to sync with the compatible SPC phone: caregiver registration, senior registration, and linking with the senior phone. Once the process is complete, which takes just a few minutes, a caregiver, from their smartphone, can:
- Help that elderly family member with their phone settings. At any time and place, you can access settings and make changes such as raising or lowering the ringtone volume, activating or deactivating the SOS button, managing contacts linked to this emergency button, increasing screen brightness, adding contacts to their address book, setting up speed dials, and more.
- Know where they are. SPC Care allows precise location tracking without the elderly person having to send their location. (Depending on phone model)
- Look out for their safety. SPC Care notifies if there are missed calls, new messages, and sends alerts if something is wrong. For example, if prolonged inactivity is detected, if the phone battery is running low, or if the elderly person has pressed the SOS button.
- Protect them from Spam and unknown contacts. SPC Care allows remote configuration of the mobile phone’s blacklist and marks SMS as read and calls as seen so the elderly person does not interact with potentially fraudulent messages or contacts.
- Monitor their health. Record upcoming medical appointments to easily remember check-ups or consultations, the name of the medication they take, or check the number of daily steps they have taken. (Depending on phone model)
- Share management with other caregivers. Collaborative care is possible, providing peace of mind that someone will always be available to help and share responsibility. Also, the app allows linking different phones so that one person can care for more than one elderly individual.
Getting started with SPC Care: caregiver data, elderly person data, and linking
Once the app is installed on a smartphone, the first steps to complete are:
.- Create the caregiver’s account in SPC Care: name, email, phone…
.- Create the profile of the elderly person as a “Cared-for Person.” You can do this in two ways:
- create the profile of a new cared-for person by entering their details: name, date of birth, phone number…
- add a profile of a cared-for person created by another user in SPC Care through their ID (this ID can be found in the administrator app managing this profile).
Next, all that’s left is to link the cared-for elderly person’s device, which will only take a few seconds:
.- scan the QR shown on the elderly person’s phone from the SPC Care menu on their phone or
.- enter the IMEI (it is a unique number that identifies each mobile phone worldwide).
You can find both that QR and the IMEI inside the senior phone’s menu; go to the “SPC Care” section and then to the “Linking” option. You can also find the IMEI on the phone’s box, by dialing *#06# on the device if that’s easier, or under the device’s battery.
Once linked, the caregiver can manage the phone remotely from anywhere.
Family members or close contacts of elderly people can choose between different levels of “caregivers,” which will allow them to have more or less control and management power over the senior phone:
.- administrator: this role is automatically assigned to the creator of the senior's profile, although it can later be changed if they designate another administrator (the app requires there always be a main administrator) and has full control over all remote management options of the senior phone and the “care” profile, and authorizes the entry of new “collaborators” or administrators.
.- collaborator: has the same functions as the administrator, except managing roles of other caregivers and deleting the senior's profile.
.- guest: Can only view from the app how the senior phone is configured without being able to modify or control any settings.
Once the app is linked with the elderly person's phone, you access the main screen of the application where the most relevant information to ensure the safety of the cared-for person is found. In addition to showing the phone's battery level and whether it is charging, it displays its location and the time of the last location update. It is also possible to force a query to know the exact location in real time. From this home screen, you can also remotely make the elderly person's phone ring to locate it easily, and it shows a list of the latest notifications received.
Use and operation of SPC Care
1.- Make remote adjustments
From the “Device” section of SPC Care, adjust all the options for the cared-for person's phone:
.- Phone:
Turn Bluetooth and mobile data on or off
Select the language in which you want the device menus to appear
Lock the phone’s power off option with the ON/OFF button
Enable/disable the option to answer/hang up a call by opening and closing the flip cover (*only on flip phones like SPC POLARIS)
Configure actions for the up, down, left, right, and OK buttons on the phone
Schedule automatic power off and on
Install any pending software updates
.- Screen:
Adjust screen brightness
Customize font size
Choose the menu format of the senior phone
.- Sound: from this function you can adjust the volume and/or sound type of:
Calls
Handset
Keys
Messages
.- SOS:
Enable/disable SOS function
Enable/disable alarm siren
Enable/disable sending emergency SMS
Set emergency message
Set emergency contacts
.- Alarms: up to 3 alarms can be set that will sound on the “cared-for” phone
.- Power management:
Restart the device (Warning! It is recommended that the senior phone does not have a security PIN so the cared-for person does not have to intervene when restarting the device or enter it manually; until entered, the phone will not be considered on).
Turn off the device (Warning! If the cared-for person’s phone is off, it will not receive any commands from the app. As with the previous option, it is advisable that the senior’s phone does not have a PIN).
2.- Contact and communication management
From the “Contacts” section of SPC Care, adjust various options of the cared-for person’s device related to:
.- Calls:
Access the call list distinguishing between outgoing, answered, and missed calls
Mark all calls as read
Add that contact to the blacklist
.- Messages:
Access received SMS and mark as read
View sender data, date/time, and message content.
Add that contact directly to the blacklist
Delete the message
.- Contacts: add or remove
.- Blacklist: add a phone number to the blacklist and manage its options:
Block incoming messages
Block incoming calls
.- Direct dials: set the contact associated with each direct dial on the mobile phone
.- Speed dials: set keys 2 to 9 and assign a contact to each one
3.- Locate them
The app allows you to know the location of our cared-for family member at any time. This way, we can find out their whereabouts if they ever need someone to come help them and they cannot or do not know exactly where they are.
4.- Receive activity and security alerts
SPC Care receives notifications to alert about missed calls or new messages on the senior’s mobile phone. It also sends alerts if the battery is low, if the device has been inactive for a prolonged period, or if our cared-for family member has pressed the SOS button.
5.- Monitor their health
Caregivers find in this app section a place to keep a record of upcoming medical appointments for the cared-for family member to easily remember check-ups or consultations, the name of the medication they take and the dosage, or to access other health functions included in their mobile phone such as step count by time slots or weekly step comparisons by day in the case of SPC POLARIS.
SPC POLARIS, the first phone compatible with SPC Care
The revolutionary app comes with SPC POLARIS, the first senior phone compatible with SPC Care. This way, this keypad phone can be fully configured remotely, without needing to be physically with the senior or requiring them to perform any action on the phone.
SPC POLARIS is a basic flip phone with 4G connectivity, ensuring better coverage and clearer call sound.
The phone also includes GPS, making it locatable via the app, and an SOS button which, after a long press, automatically calls the 5 defined contacts, making up to 3 rounds of calls if there is no answer. (Attention! It is recommended that the contacts set in the SOS function do not have voicemail activated because if the emergency call goes to voicemail, the SOS function will assume the call was answered and will stop the process at that moment, so it will not continue making further calls.)
This new device for seniors is compatible with hearing aids and includes a charging dock, which makes the process easier and keeps it always in sight. It includes 3 customizable speed dial buttons that can be linked to a contact so that pressing any of these buttons automatically calls the associated contact. It also has 8 programmable quick dial buttons on keys 2 through 9, allowing you to assign eight additional direct contacts.
POLARIS also features a 2000-contact phonebook, rear camera, the option to insert a Micro SD card to expand storage capacity, and a range of practical and useful functions for senior users: flashlight, radio, alarm, hands-free, or calculator, among others.
