Walkthrough
How CareDuo works
Two people, two phones, and about five minutes. Most of it happens once; the daily part is a single tap.
The daily loop
Everything below exists to support four moments that repeat every day:
The dose becomes due
A reminder arrives on the recipient's phone at the scheduled local time.
They tap once
Taken or Skip, from the notification itself.
The caregiver's day updates
Immediately, and silently. A normal day makes no noise at all.
A missed dose speaks up
The caregiver is notified, naming the person and the time of day.
Everything else is setup, and setup happens once.
Setting up, step by step
1. Install and sign in
CareDuo uses Sign in with Apple. There is no password to invent and no email address handed over. Apple's private relay works fine.
2. Add a medication
Name, dose, an optional note about how to take it, and a schedule. Schedules can be every day, specific days of the week, or several times a day. Each time is a wall-clock time in the person's own day, which is why the morning tablet stays a morning tablet through daylight saving and travel.
3. Allow notifications
This is the step that matters most, and it is worth not skipping. Reminders are scheduled on the device by iOS, so they arrive whether or not there is a signal.
4. Invite the person who cares
Send an invitation as a link or a six-character code beginning CARE-.
The other person installs CareDuo and accepts on their device. Opening the link does not accept it: the acceptance screen sets out what is about to be shared, and they agree to it explicitly.
An invitation is single use and expires after a few days. Codes are stored hashed and repeated failed attempts are rate-limited, so a forwarded message never becomes a permanent way in.
5. That's the setup
From here the recipient taps once a dose, and the caregiver mostly hears nothing, which is the intended experience.
What the caregiver does
Almost nothing, deliberately.
They see today at a glance: what is taken, what is due, what was skipped. They can look back through the history and the week's adherence. If they gave a dose in person, they can record it. And they receive an alert when a dose is missed.
There is no approval to grant, no chart to fill in, and nothing that requires them to open the app on a normal day.
Changing or ending the arrangement
The recipient can remove a caregiver at any time, and that access ends immediately. Medications can be edited or deleted by the person they belong to. Nothing here is a permanent commitment.
See also: medication reminders · caregiver alerts · privacy and security
Common questions
How long does setup take?
A few minutes for the person taking medication, less for the caregiver accepting the invitation. Adding each additional medication takes under a minute.
Do both people need an iPhone?
Yes, for now. CareDuo is an iPhone app requiring iOS 18 or later. There is no Android app and no web version.
Who should hold the recipient account?
The person whose medication it is, always, even if a family member does the setting up. The recipient account owns the medication list and controls who can see it.
What if the invitation expires?
Invitations are single use and expire after a few days. Issue a new one; the old code stops working, which is what keeps a forwarded link from becoming a permanent open door.