Features
Built so you can hear their stories
Everything The Ken does, and what it costs, when a phone has stopped working for someone you love. Open the part you want.
See how it worksFeatures
Everything The Ken does, and what it costs, when a phone has stopped working for someone you love. Open the part you want.
See how it worksKnowing your way around a phone doesn't hold back failing eyesight, unsteady hands, a fading memory, or a scammer's script. The Ken is built for the years a smartphone stops being kind.
The raised numbers point at the research behind The Ken, where each choice is set out next to the figure actually in the build and the source it came from.
We keep families connected, without the technology getting in the way. The Ken is built from the ground up for people that mainstream phones and tablets have left behind.
The Ken has no phone number, no email address, no web browser and no apps to install. A cold caller has no number to dial, a phishing message has nowhere to arrive, and there is no page for a fake bank to load.
Older people lose far more per incident than any other age group, and the fraud that reaches them arrives overwhelmingly down a phone line. The Ken has no phone line.
The fear alone changes how people live. Almost a fifth of over-50s in the UK, 4.9 million people, are afraid to answer their phone, and 2.1 million say it has put them off using a smartphone at all16. Nearly 3 in 5 people over 65 have already been targeted, the average loss is £4,000, and 31% of victims report long-term mental health effects17.
Reaching the screen takes a credential your family was given. You decide who gets one, from the portal, wherever you are.
Only faces they recognise, only voices they know.
One Ken, built to do one job: keep families in touch when phones and tablets get in the way.
The Ken comes with an admin portal, built for the person buying it as much as the person using it.
From your phone or computer you can add contacts and their photographs, send a message or a photo, change settings, and set reminders, all without being in the same room. You can see call activity, message history, and whether the Ken has been used recently.
When a medication reminder is missed, the portal tells you and the other family members you've authorised. You know they're OK without having to ask.
The Ken is simple for them. The portal is built for you. Log in to the portal if you already have a Ken.
You could. For someone who just wants a phone call, though, a tablet usually ends up gathering dust on the kitchen table within a month.
A tablet is a full computer. It asks for a password, then an account to log into, then an update that moves the buttons, then a pop-up about cloud storage, then a scam email dressed up as the bank. Every one of those is a chance to get stuck.
The Ken does none of that. It shows only approved faces, and when one of them calls, the screen lights up. That's the whole product.
| The Ken | Alternative A* | Alternative B* | Alternative C* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing for a scammer to use - no phone number, no email, no browser, no apps to install12 | ||||
| Family and carers can manage The Ken remotely | Linked account | Companion app | ||
| Dedicated carer interface | ||||
| Intuitive interface for all users | Mostly | |||
| Works for users with accessibility challenges1, 5, 6, 8, 9 | ||||
| Designed for users who find touchscreens difficult2, 3, 4 | Accessibility mode | Voice only | Accessibility mode | |
| Make and receive calls without navigating menus | Voice only | |||
| Auto-answer for trusted contacts | Accessibility | Via settings | Accessibility | |
| Videomail for missed calls | In-app message | In-app message | ||
| Large, high-contrast interface for poor vision | Adjustable | Adjustable | ||
| No adverts, no data resale | ||||
| No always-on microphone, no voice assistant, no hot-word | Wake word | Wake word | ||
| Medication reminders with family escalation | ||||
| Multiple Kens on one family plan | Linked account | Multi-device | ||
| Right to repair |
The raised numbers point at the research behind The Ken: the standard or study behind each row, next to the figure actually in the build.
* Alternative A is a tablet such as an Apple iPad and Alternative B a smart display such as an Amazon Echo Show, both read from their makers' pages on 23 September 2026. Alternative C is a smartphone with a messaging app. These are the options families try first. They are capable products built for a general audience, and the comparison shows how they behave out of the box.
Every other product was built for a general buyer. The Ken is built the other way round, starting from the person modern technology leaves behind and working out what they actually need.
The contacts screen, remote management and reminders were all designed from day one for that person and the family looking after them.
A 10-inch touchscreen built for people modern technology has left behind. Comes with The Ken, power cable and a quick-start guide. Nothing else to buy.
The Ken connects over your home WiFi, but calls and messages run through a closed system we build and maintain. There is no phone number and no email address on The Ken, so a cold caller has nothing to dial and a phishing message has nowhere to land. No ads, no pop-ups, and nothing on The Ken to install. The faces on the screen are the contacts you add in the portal. Your plan keeps this running: the secure network, the portal, the iPhone and Android app, medication reminders, Voicemail, and every software update. Every plan has all of it; they differ in how much Voicemail and Videomail they hold and how you reach a person.
Cancel any time. The Ken is yours to keep.
Most screens are built to hold your attention: badges, streaks, endless feeds, small rewards that pull you back. The Ken has none of that, on purpose.
Something meant to reconnect someone with the people they love should never be built to keep them staring at it. So The Ken earns its place by being useful, a call that connects and a face that appears, and stays quiet the rest of the time.
Simplicity
One screen, one purpose, and no moments of feeling foolish. A dedicated answer button, big photos instead of numbers, no gestures to learn, and nothing for them to reconfigure. Features designed to make it easy to use for someone living with memory loss, e.g. dementia: a face to recognise rather than a number to recall, a screen that never rearranges itself, no password to keep, and no time limit that cuts them off mid-thought. The reasoning behind each of those.
Autonomy
It stays their Ken. They call or message approved contacts whenever they like, without asking anyone. They stay independent and you stop worrying.
Dignity
A Ken that respects them and never watches them. No always-on microphone or camera, nothing listening in the corner of the room, and nothing that treats them as a patient.
Everything we are building, in the open. Log in to the portal to vote for a feature and help decide what we build next.
The Ken is and will always be feedback-driven. Every month we give a free year of the plan to the person whose feedback helped us most.
The Ken is in its final round of testing with families around the country. Join the list and we will tell you the day it goes on sale, with a 30-day return and a 12-month warranty.
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