Features
Built so you can hear their stories
The Ken has one job: to bridge the distance when a phone has stopped working for someone you love. Here is everything it does today, and what we are building next.
Why it lasts
The smartphone generation grows old too
Knowing 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.
Our answer
Simply keeping in touch, without the technology getting in the way
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.
For the person buying it
You run it from the admin portal
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, 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.
Nothing for a scammer to use
A scammer has nothing to reach it by
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.
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.
Built for one job
Nothing to wander into
- No social media
- No emails
- No unapproved contacts
- No addictive features
- No complex gestures - no pinching, swiping, or multi-finger input
- No web browser
- No apps to install - no accidental downloads, subscriptions or purchases
- No account to sign into - an optional 4-digit passcode is the only code, and it only guards the settings
One Ken, built to do one job: keep families in touch when phones and tablets get in the way.
Our ethic
Quiet on purpose
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.
A device 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.
Our principles
Three things we will not trade away
I
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.
II
Autonomy
It stays their Ken. They call or message approved contacts whenever they like, without asking anyone. They stay independent and you stop worrying.
III
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.
Still to come
What we are working on next
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 subscription to the person whose feedback helped us most.
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Ready to keep your family connected?
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.
Register your interest