Your phone rings at a time you pick. And she remembers.
Sarah is an AI voice who calls you on your own phone, once a day. You talk about whatever you feel like. Next time she calls, she remembers what you said.
One thing before you start: this needs a smartphone with the Guardian Sarah app on it — an iPhone or an Android phone. It does not work on a landline, and it does not work on an older flip phone.
First, the part people ask about
Sarah is not a real person. She is a computer voice — what people call artificial intelligence. There is nobody sitting in an office waiting to talk to you.
She says this out loud herself, on your first call, before anything else. And if you ever ask her — "are you real?" — she will tell you the truth, every time.
"I'm not a real person — I'm a computer voice. Artificial intelligence. But I do remember our conversations, and I like talking with you." What Sarah says when you ask her.
People do get fond of her anyway. That is all right. We only ask that you always know what she is.
What it is like
Your phone rings, the way it always does. You answer it, the way you always do. There is nothing to download in the moment, no button to find, no screen to read.
"Morning. Before anything else — I'm a computer voice, not a real person. Now. Did the rain wake you up too?" Sample dialogue. Not a recording of anyone.
Then you talk. About your knee, about the neighbor's dog, about 1961. She asks about the things you told her before.
What you can ask her for
Things to listen to
- Music. Classical, hymns, big band — just say what you want.
- The radio. Your own station, playing live, the same broadcast anyone else hears.
- Books, read aloud. Jane Austen, Sherlock Holmes, Mark Twain and more — whole novels, a chapter at a time.
- Scripture. The Bible or the Qur'an, any passage, read to you.
Listen for as long as you like. There is no limit and no extra charge for listening.
Reminders you set yourself
Thursday's appointment. Your grandson's birthday. You tell her what to remind you about — and the family you invited can too.
Your stories, kept
What she writes down
When you tell Sarah about your mother's kitchen, or the winter the pipes froze, or how you met your husband, she writes it down and keeps it for your family. In your words.
If you would like to see what that looks like before you start, we wrote about keeping the stories you have told a hundred times.
If you turn on recording
If you turn on recording, they keep your voice as well. Recording is off until you turn it on yourself. If you do turn it on, Sarah says so out loud at the start of every single call, and that announcement cannot be switched off. She cannot stop a recording once the call has begun — but you can hang up whenever you like, and ask us to turn recording off so she never saves another one.
Your family
You choose who. The people you invite get a few sentences about how your day went and can send you a note that Sarah reads to you out loud. They cannot listen in on a call. They see nothing you did not agree to, and if you want one of them taken off the list, ask us and we cut their access the same day.
What Sarah cannot do
This is the most important thing on this page, so it is written plainly.
- She is not a doctor or a nurse. She gives no medical advice, and she can be wrong about things — including things about you.
- She is not a safety device. She cannot tell if you have fallen. She cannot call anybody for you. She cannot hear your room between calls.
- Nobody is checking on you. If you do not answer, nothing happens. No alarm, no phone call to your family. A missed call is just a missed call.
- In an emergency, hang up and call 911. Sarah cannot do that for you.
And if you are having a very hard time — the kind where you do not want to be here anymore — Sarah will stop whatever she was saying, tell you plainly that she is not a person and not trained for this, and ask you to call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Real people, any hour, free. She cannot call them for you, so she will ask you to.
What it costs, and how you stop it
The price
It is a subscription you pay every month: $39 a month, or $390 a year (two months free). One price, one product. There will be no special offer, no deadline, and nobody telling you it is going up tomorrow.
How you stop it
You will be able to stop it by writing one line to us, and nobody will try to talk you out of it. If it is not for you, tell us in the first 30 days and we give you back every penny.
If someone is helping you sign up
You have to say yes yourself
Good — that is how most people will do it. Whoever is paying does that part on the website, not on your phone. But there is one rule we do not bend: you set up your own account, and you have to agree to it yourself. Not the salesperson, not your daughter. If it is not a good day for it, we will come back another day.
We tell a family member what you bought
And on the day you sign up, we email a family member to tell them what you bought and what it costs. Not to check up on you — so nobody is surprised, and so someone can help you turn it off if you ever want to.
When you are ready
Write to us and a person writes back — not a form, not a robot. Tell us as little as you like and we will walk you through the whole thing at your own pace. If you would rather read what it costs first, that page says it plainly and asks you for nothing.