Technology for seniors

Technology stopped being optional somewhere in the last decade. Banks push customers toward apps, doctors offer video visits, family photos live in group chats, and event tickets arrive as QR codes. For older adults this shift is double-edged: the same devices that create friction for late adopters also deliver some of the most useful tools aging has ever had, from video calls with grandchildren to a button that summons help after a fall.

The good news is that the stereotype of the offline senior is out of date. Most people over 65 are already online, device makers now build accessibility in rather than bolting it on, and a small industry of free classes exists specifically to teach the rest. The realistic goal is not mastering technology but picking the handful of tools that pay their way and learning those well.

This article covers who is actually online, how to choose a phone or tablet, video calling, telehealth under current Medicare rules, medical alert systems, smart home safety, staying safe from online crime, and where to get patient, free help.

Who is online after 65#

In a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2025, 78 percent of Americans 65 and older owned a smartphone and 70 percent subscribed to home broadband. The gap with younger adults has narrowed but not closed: 91 percent of all US adults own a smartphone, and while 41 percent of adults overall say they are online almost constantly, just 14 percent of those 65 and older say the same ¹. In practice that means most retirees are connected but use the internet as a tool rather than a habitat, and a meaningful minority, concentrated among the oldest and lowest-income adults, remains offline in a world that increasingly assumes otherwise.

Sources for this section: [1]

Choosing a phone or tablet#

The choice is less about brand than about support. The most useful device is the one your most patient family member or friend already knows how to fix, so matching their platform (iPhone or Android) is a legitimate selection criterion.

Mainstream phones can be simplified free of charge through settings rather than replaced with a "senior phone." Both iPhone and Android offer larger and bolder text, zoomed display modes, simplified home screens, loud ringtones with flash alerts, voice assistants that set timers and place calls by voice, a magnifier that uses the camera as a reading glass, and live captions for calls and videos. People with hearing aids have federal rules on their side: the Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule in 2024 that, after a transition period of two to three and a half years, requires every mobile phone sold in the United States to be hearing aid compatible, and compatibility ratings already appear on phone spec sheets ². Pairing hearing aids directly to a phone turns it into a remote microphone and streamer, a real quality-of-life gain covered further in hearing loss.

Simplified handsets such as big-button flip phones and senior-focused models still make sense for people who want calls, texts, and an urgent-response button with nothing else to go wrong. The tradeoff is losing the apps that banks, pharmacies, and airlines increasingly expect you to have. Tablets are underrated for anyone with limited dexterity or vision problems: bigger targets, bigger text, and a better video-call screen. A current model a generation or two old is fine as long as it still receives security updates; a device too old to update is a safety problem, not a bargain.

Sources for this section: [2]

Video calls with family#

Video calling is the single highest-value skill for most older adults, and the app matters less than adoption: use whatever the family already uses, whether FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom, or Google Meet. Three small fixes solve most frustrations: prop the device up rather than holding it, face a window or lamp so light hits your face, and use headphones or hearing aid streaming if voices sound muddy. Shared photo albums and group chats carry the relationship between calls, and for long-distance grandparents, a standing weekly call beats sporadic marathon ones, a theme picked up in grandparenting and staying socially connected. Smart displays (a screen plus voice assistant) can auto-answer calls from approved family members, which some households use, with clear consent, to keep an eye on a relative who cannot work a phone, an arrangement discussed in long-distance caregiving.

Telehealth and Medicare#

Telehealth means a medical visit by video or phone, and it went from experiment to standard during the pandemic. The rules have since been extended repeatedly, and the current status is favorable: under the spending law passed in February 2026, Medicare covers telehealth visits in your home, with no geographic restrictions and with audio-only (ordinary phone) visits allowed, through December 31, 2027 ³. For mental and behavioral health, those flexibilities are permanent: Medicare covers behavioral telehealth at home, including audio-only visits, with no expiration date ⁴. Normal Part B cost sharing applies, and Medicare Advantage plans may offer additional telehealth benefits on top.

Telehealth suits medication check-ins, mental health visits, follow-ups, and triage of "should I come in?" questions; it cannot replace visits that need hands or instruments. Before a first video visit, ask the office which app it uses and do a test run, and know that if the video fails, a phone call may still count as a covered visit under the current rules ³. The video health visit checklist covers accessibility, medicines, measurements, support people, privacy, and the reconnection plan.

Sources for this section: [3] [4]

Medical alert systems#

A personal emergency response system, or PERS, is a wearable button connected to a 24-hour monitoring center; press it and a trained operator speaks through the device, calls a family contact, or dispatches emergency services. Two design decisions matter: where it works and whether it detects falls.

Those ranges come from the National Council on Aging's 2026 reviews ⁵. Automatic fall detection uses motion sensors to call for help when it senses a fall, but no device catches every fall or avoids all false alarms, so wearers should still press the button when they can. Original Medicare does not cover medical alert systems, which it treats as convenience items rather than medical equipment; some Medicare Advantage plans include one as a supplemental benefit, and some state Medicaid home and community-based services waivers cover PERS, so check coverage before paying out of pocket ⁶. Prefer month-to-month plans over long contracts. A PERS is one piece of the larger fall strategy in fall prevention and one of the standard supports for aging in place.

Sources for this section: [5] [6]

Smart home safety#

A few inexpensive devices remove specific, well-known hazards. A video doorbell lets you see and speak to whoever knocks without opening the door, which is both a convenience and a defense against door-to-door pressure tactics. Smart bulbs or plugs can light the bathroom path automatically at night, addressing one of the classic fall setups. Automatic stove shutoff devices cut power after a burner is left unattended, a top request from families worried about early memory changes. Smart speakers handle reminders, timers, shopping lists, and hands-free calls to family; just do not treat one as an emergency lifeline, because a speaker is not a monitored alert button. Cameras inside the home can reassure distant family, but they belong there only with the resident's genuine consent, freely given rather than worn down. Larger safety changes to the house itself, grab bars to stair lifts, are covered in home modifications.

Staying safe online#

The money argument for caution is stark: Americans 60 and older reported nearly $4.9 billion in fraud losses to the FBI for 2024, with an average reported loss of about $83,000 ⁷. Three habits block most of it.

First, use strong, unique passwords, which in practice means letting a password manager (or your browser's built-in one) remember them; safer passwords and trusted access explains passkeys, multifactor choices, recovery, and emergency access. Second, turn on two-factor authentication for email, banking, and investment accounts, and never read a login code to anyone who calls, because no legitimate company asks. Third, learn the tells of phishing and impostor contact: manufactured urgency, threats, requests for gift cards or wire transfers or cryptocurrency, "your grandchild is in trouble," and pop-ups claiming your computer is infected. Caller ID and email sender names are easily faked, so verify by calling back on a number you look up yourself. Keep devices set to update automatically. The full catalog of current schemes, and what to do if you have been hit, is in scams that target seniors.

Caution: Nobody legitimate, not Medicare, not the IRS, not Microsoft, not your bank, will ever call you to demand gift cards, ask for remote access to your computer, or tell you to move money to a "safe account." Any one of those is the scam itself.

Sources for this section: [7]

Where to get free, patient help#

Free instruction designed for older adults is plentiful. Senior Planet from AARP teaches no-cost live classes online and at its centers, from smartphone basics to online banking, and runs a national tech hotline ⁸. Cyber-Seniors pairs older adults with trained student mentors for free one-on-one help by phone or video. Public libraries offer drop-in device help and digital literacy classes, and GetSetUp runs live online classes taught by older adults. Senior centers and community colleges fill in locally. These classes assume nothing, move slowly, and are full of classmates asking the same questions; they also make a natural on-ramp to the broader world of lifelong learning.

Sources for this section: [8]

If you are the adult child helping a parent#

Buy what you can support: the parent's ideal phone is the one running the same system as yours. Set everything up before handing it over, including contacts with photos, favorites on the home screen, the medical ID and emergency contacts feature, voicemail, and automatic updates, then delete or hide every app they will not use. Write down the passwords together and store them where the parent chooses. Agree on location sharing and any cameras explicitly; safety tools imposed without consent tend to get unplugged. Expect to teach the same three things several times without sighing, put a recurring "tech help" call on the calendar, and remember the relationship framing that runs through family caregiving: the goal is their independence, not your dashboard.

RetiredWiki. (2026, July 17). Technology for seniors. https://retiredwiki.com/article/technology-for-seniors