How to simplify a smartphone for someone over 75

The twelve steps, in order

1. Turn the text size up two or three steps, and switch on bold text. Both are in Display settings on iPhone and Android.
2. Delete or hide every app that will not be used. Fewer icons is the single biggest improvement on this list.
3. Put the four or five apps that are used on the first screen, large, in the same positions every time.
4. Turn off every notification except calls and messages from family. Meaningless beeps cause anxiety and prompt random tapping.
5. Set the screen to stay on longer — two or five minutes — so it does not go black mid-task.
6. Turn the ringer and alert volume to maximum, and choose a ring tone that sounds like a telephone rather than a tune.
7. Switch off auto-rotate so the screen does not flip sideways when the phone is held at an angle.
8. Add family to favorites, with photographs, so calling is a press on a face.
9. Turn on the simplified launcher if the phone has one: Easy Mode on Samsung, Simple Mode on some Android phones. On an iPhone, Assistive Access reduces the whole phone to a few large buttons.
10. Disable automatic app downloads and in-app purchases so nothing appears unannounced.
11. Enable a longer press duration for touch, which stops a resting fingertip registering as a tap. It is called Touch Accommodations on iPhone and Touch & hold delay on Android.
12. Write the phone's own number on a label on the back. It gets asked for constantly.

The three mistakes families make

The first is doing the setup without the person. If they do not see where things went, every change becomes something that happened to them, and the first problem turns into a phone call to you rather than a shrug.

The second is simplifying too hard. Deleting the camera because "she never uses it" removes the thing that gets grandchildren photographed. Ask before you remove; it takes a second.

The third is doing it once and never again. A software update moves things, eyesight changes, confidence changes. Revisit the setup every six months or so, and expect to remove more than you add.

When to stop simplifying and change the phone

There is a point where settings stop being enough. If the person cannot reliably find the home screen, if an accidental press still lands them somewhere unfamiliar every week, or if the phone causes visible anxiety, the device is wrong rather than the configuration.

At that point, a phone with physical keys and a fixed menu is a better answer than more tinkering. Our roundup of simple phones covers the options, and the dementia-specific page covers photo dialing.

What this does not fix

Hearing. No setting makes a phone's earpiece meaningfully louder than its hardware allows. If calls are hard to hear, you need a phone rated M4/T4 for hearing aids, or an amplified home phone.

Grip. A large glass slab is hard to hold with arthritic hands however it is configured. A case with a strap, or a flip phone, solves that where software cannot.