GrandPad, the Android pill designed for seniors, has been round for years. Nonetheless, it’s not one thing I’ve ever been in a position to attempt for myself. I had an opportunity to alter that at CES 2025, so I did.
What I found is a surprisingly competent senior-focused Android pill, and one which now has a splash of AI in addition. Right here’s what I discovered throughout my hands-on time with the GrandPad.
A pill tailor-made for seniors
At its core, the GrandPad is an 8-inch pill designed particularly for older, much less technologically assured customers. The system goals to maintain seniors linked to their household, pals, and caregivers whereas selling independence and confidence with present applied sciences.
Throughout hands-on testing, the pill’s resemblance to the basic Nexus 7 turned shortly obvious. This similarity is not any coincidence, because the GrandPad’s roots hint again to a modified Nexus 7, which served because the preliminary prototype.
The pill boasts a number of options that make it extra accessible to its audience. These embody giant, easy-to-read icons and simplified navigation mixed with assist for video calls, multiplayer turn-based video games, and photograph sharing that doesn’t depend on a public community, together with customized content material tailor-made to every consumer’s pursuits.
The GrandPad’s bread and butter
One standout characteristic of the GrandPad is its 24/7, 365-day-a-year proactive buyer care crew primarily based within the U.S. Isaac Lien, co-founder of GrandPad, highlighted the crew’s dedication: “If their battery is operating low and we see it’s dying and never on the charger, we’ll simply name and say, ‘Hey, it seems like your battery may be operating low, reminder to place it on the charger.’”
Lien additional emphasised the significance of this service, stating: “For a lot of of our prospects, loneliness is a large difficulty. It’s wintertime, they usually’re sitting at house alone. We wish them to name.” He added, “You name us on Christmas Eve at 3 a.m., we’ll reply.”
Safety is essential to the GrandPad expertise. The pill features a personal community for blocking spam and rip-off calls, a devoted GrandPad e mail handle to filter untrusted communication, and a persistent LTE connection utilizing an included SIM card. These options make sure the system all the time has entry to essential safety updates, even when Wi-Fi is unavailable.
When my issues about GrandPad’s use of Android 8 AOSP (from 2017) have been raised, Lien assured me that essential safety updates are pushed to the system silently in a single day. The GrandPad software program’s modular and configurable nature permits customers to obtain safety updates with out friction or interference.
The GrandPad crew is consistently upgrading the consumer expertise as nicely, although they notice that some customers could also be unaware of or tired of these modifications. The corporate affords proactive buyer assist to tell customers about updates and new options, and customers have the selection to stick with their acquainted interface or improve with guided help from GrandPad assist.
Grandie Chat provides AI to the combination
At CES 2025, GrandPad was displaying off “Grandie Chat,” an AI-driven, voice-controlled characteristic that leverages OpenAI’s fashions to supply an intuitive approach for seniors to work together with know-how. This new characteristic has led to GrandPad customers adopting generative AI at 3 times the speed of others of their age group.
“Some customers have by no means used a pc earlier than,” mentioned Lien. “However with Grandie Chat, as soon as they notice it’s similar to speaking, they are saying, ‘Oh, it’s really easy, I’m simply having a dialog.’”
Grandie Chat eliminates the necessity for typing via voice interplay and preprogrammed prompts, making it extremely user-friendly for the aged. Whereas at present using OpenAI’s fashions as the first giant language mannequin (LLM) mind, GrandPad repeatedly exams completely different fashions to attain optimum efficiency and consumer expertise.
The GrandPad comes with a wi-fi charging stand that exemplifies the corporate’s consideration to consumer wants. The pill simply slides into place with out the trouble of aligning pogo pins or plugging in cables – a major profit for the system’s goal customers. The stand can also be handy for video calls.
With its mix of simplicity, safety, and LLM-based AI, GrandPad actually is not like another pill obtainable. It’s definitely not the pill for everybody, however for a grandparent who desires a approach to keep linked with an simple-to-use system, it’s straightforward to see why the GrandPad is so interesting.
