Living alone? A daily check-in for yourself, on WhatsApp

Set up Athnova Care for yourself: one WhatsApp question a day, a reminder, a phone call if you go quiet, and the people you chose told. Free for one person.

Who this is for

People who live alone and want someone to notice, the same day, if they do not get up one morning: widowed parents who do not want to “bother the children”, a single person in a new city, an expat whose family is six time zones away, a retiree whose neighbours are at work. The “Are You Dead?” app that went viral in China in January 2026 proved how many people want exactly this. The difference here is that nothing depends on you opening an app: the question comes to you, and the follow-up is a phone call and a person.

How it works when you set it up for yourself

Sign in with your email or Google account (about two minutes). You are the “family member”; nobody else needs to join.
Add the person to check on: yourself. Enter your own WhatsApp number, your language and the time you want the morning question. For “relation” choose “other”.
Add one or two local contacts — a neighbour, a friend, a relative in the same city — with their phone numbers. They are the people who will be told if you go quiet, and the ones who can come to the door.
Invite anyone far away who should also hear (a child, a sibling) as a family member. They see your check-ins and alerts; they pay nothing extra.
Reply “Yes, I agree” on the WhatsApp message you receive. From the next morning, one question a day.

What happens on a bad morning

You do not answer the morning message. After about three hours you get a reminder. Still nothing: on the full plan, your phone rings — an automated call in your language, where you press 1 to say you are fine; it is repeated once. Still nothing: the people you added are alerted, and the neighbour or friend you nominated is messaged and phoned so someone can check on you in person. Nobody sends the police or an ambulance on your behalf; the alert shows the emergency number of your country for the people who care about you to use if they find something wrong.

What it costs

Nothing, for the daily WhatsApp check-in, the reminder, the alert to your contacts, the SOS word and the emergency card: that is the free plan, for one person, with no time limit and no card. The phone call when you go quiet, the medicine reminders, the readings and the monthly summary are in the full plan — $12 a month or $99 a year, with 14 days free first. If someone else wants to pay for it as a gift, they can.

Privacy

No location tracking, no reading of your phone, no app running in the background. The service knows one thing: whether you answered today. Your contacts see your check-ins and alerts, nothing else, and you can stop everything with the word STOP on WhatsApp.

If you would rather someone else set it up

Send this page to your son, daughter, niece or friend. They can add you as the person to check on from their own account, in your language, and you still only ever see one WhatsApp question a day.

Set it up for yourself (free) See every feature

Questions families ask

Can I use Athnova Care for myself, not for a parent?

Yes. Sign in, add yourself as the person to check on with your own WhatsApp number, choose “other” as the relation, and add the neighbours or friends who should be told if you go quiet. The free plan covers one person.

Do I need a smartphone?

For the WhatsApp check-in, yes. Without WhatsApp, the full plan can phone you every day instead — any phone works, including a landline, in the 25 countries our call reaches.

What if I am travelling or sleeping in?

Reply late and the ladder stops at once. You can also change the check-in time or pause the check-in for a trip from the app. A late answer is never treated as an emergency; only a whole morning of silence is.

Will my contacts be bothered every day?

No. On a normal day nobody but you sees the message. Your contacts hear only when you have not answered the message, the reminder and the call — and, if you turn it on, a one-line note that you checked in.

Is this a medical service?

No. It is a daily signal that you are reachable. It does not diagnose, prescribe or replace a doctor, and it is not an emergency service.

Athnova Care tracks and coordinates care. It does not diagnose, prescribe or replace a doctor. In a medical emergency call the local emergency number.