You hear about the ordinary days, not just the hard ones.
Your parent uses Guardian Sarah on their own phone and invites you into it. You read a short recap of how the day went and can send a note that Sarah reads aloud. That is the whole arrangement — and they can end your access at any time, without asking us or you.
Most people arrive here from one of two weeks: when an elderly parent calls multiple times a day, or the quieter one where you are not sure what she does all day.
Start here: this app belongs to them
Most products aimed at older adults are really sold to the adult child. The parent is the subject; you are the customer. We built this the other way round on purpose.
Your parent is the one in charge. Whoever pays, they decide whether anything is recorded, and they decide whether you can see it. You are a guest in their app, invited by them, removable by them.
That is not a limitation we are apologizing for. It is the reason they will keep telling Sarah the truth about how they are doing.
If you are reading this at the end of a week where you did not ring as often as you meant to, that is the far more common version of this story: the guilt about not calling Mom enough is the piece we get written to about most.
What you see, and what you don't
| You get | You never get |
|---|---|
| A few warm sentences after each visit — what they talked about, what made them laugh. | A transcript of the call, or a live listen-in. Neither exists for you. |
| Their life story, growing a chapter at a time — Sarah asks one question a visit, and what they tell her becomes a page in their words — with a clip of them telling it, if they turned recording on. Eight chapters, and the Family Admin keeps the book and the clips, even after the subscription ends. | Anything from before you were invited. |
| The things they mentioned needing — out of toothpaste, a cake for Sunday — on a quiet list, waiting for whoever visits next. | A notification about any of it. The list is there when you open the app, and nowhere else. |
| Recordings, only if they turned recording on themselves. | The ability to turn recording on. Only they can do that. |
| A way to send a note that Sarah reads aloud on her next call. | Any alert, score, trend line, mood chart, or "she sounded off today" flag. |
"Your daughter typed you a note last night. Would you like me to read it to you?" Sample dialogue. Not a recording of anyone.
What this is not, and will not become
Families ask us for a "tell me if something's wrong" alert. We are not building one, and we would rather lose the sale than pretend otherwise. What Sarah passes along is smaller and more honest: the things your parent actually asked for, on a list you read when you open the app.
- Sarah cannot detect a fall, cannot summon help, and cannot call you, us, or 911.
- Nobody is listening. No person at Guardian Sarah hears a call while it is happening.
- A missed call is not a signal. If your parent does not answer, nobody is told and nothing rings — the app simply shows the visit was missed, the next time you look. They were out, or asleep, or did not feel like talking. Treat it as exactly that.
- This is not a substitute for checking on someone. It is a way to stay close between the times you already call.
The same honesty applies to the thing families ask about second-most. A reminder is a prompt, never proof — we wrote out how to remind an elderly parent to take medication without nagging, including where our own answer stops working.
An alert that fires late, or does not fire, is worse than no alert — because someone relied on it. In an emergency, call 911.
If your parent is in crisis, Sarah will stop and ask them to call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. She will not notify you, and the recap you read will not narrate what was said. That, too, is deliberate.
Helping a parent sign up
Please do sit with them. Read it together. Ask us the hard questions first — support@guardiansarah.com reaches a person, not a form.
The one rule we do not bend
They have to agree to it themselves. You subscribe on your own phone, in the app, through Apple or Google — not on this website; what happens on their phone is them setting up their own account, in their own words, on a day they are up to it. Nobody sets it up for someone who has not said yes — not you, not whoever is helping, not us. If they are not sure, the whole thing waits.
On the day they sign up, we email you — the price and the renewal date, and a reminder that you can cancel any time in your Apple or Google account settings. You do not have to ask for that email and they cannot switch it off at signup. It is there so nobody is ever surprised by a charge.
If you think they didn't understand what they bought
Tell us, and ask Apple or Google for a refund — they decide, and we won't object — no proof of relationship, no power of attorney, no argument, and no attempt to save the sale from us. Email support@guardiansarah.com if you want us to say so on your behalf.
The privacy questions you're going to ask
Is it recording?
Not unless your parent turned it on. It is off to begin with. If they do turn it on, Sarah announces at the start of every call that it is being recorded, and that announcement cannot be disabled. She cannot stop a recording once a call has begun — but anyone can end the call at any time, and writing to support@guardiansarah.com gets recording switched off so nothing further is saved.
Is there a camera?
No. There is no camera and there never will be. Sarah's microphone is open during a call and never between calls.
Where does the conversation go?
It is turned into text so Sarah can reply and so the recap can be written, stored encrypted, and shown only to the family circle your parent chose. We do not sell personal information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not use conversations to train AI models. The detail is in the Privacy Policy and in Privacy & your data.
Does Sarah pretend to be a person?
Never. She says she is an AI voice on the first call and any time she is asked. If your parent believes she is a real person after being told twice, that is a reason to stop, not a reason to sell harder — and our own signup rules say so.
When you are ready
The first 14 days are free. They begin when the account is created rather than when you pay, and they need no card. After that it is $39.99 a month, or $399.99 a year. One price, one product.
What it costs and how to pay Show this to your parent
Rather ask somebody first? Write to support@guardiansarah.com. A person answers, and you can ask anything — including how to stop it.