AI Companion for Seniors: Robot, Phone Call, or App?

inTouch's FAQ says its calls are not recorded. Its privacy policy says it generates transcripts of every call and sends a summary to the family.

Here's the direct answer for anyone shopping for an AI companion for seniors, whether for yourself or for a parent. The category sells the same idea in three physical forms. A robot that lives on a table and is leased, never bought, at $59 a month plus a $249 fee. A phone number that rings a landline every day for about EUR 29.90 a month. And a chatbot inside WhatsApp or Messenger from $14.90 a month. The form decides who can use it, because a robot needs Wi-Fi and a person willing to talk to a lamp, while a phone call needs nothing the household doesn't already own. And in two of the three cases the person paying is not the person talking. The vendor is selling the adult child a window into the parent's conversations, and says so in the small print if not always in the FAQ.

Every price, policy and requirement below was read from elliq.com, senior-talk.com and intouch.family on 15 September 2026. Where a company's own pages disagree with each other, both versions are quoted.

Three Shapes, One Product

The pages ranking for this search treat "AI companion" as one thing. It isn't, and the split matters more than any feature list.

ElliQ is hardware. It's a tabletop robot body that moves, with a separate tablet screen, made by Intuition Robotics in San Francisco, and it's the only product here that occupies a room. It speaks first. The FAQ describes it as proactive, checking in and suggesting activities rather than waiting for a command, and it needs power and Wi-Fi to do anything at all. It's designed for adults 60 and older who live alone or spend most of the day alone, ships and supports only within the United States, and works in English.

inTouch is a phone call. A voice called Mary rings the older person's landline or mobile on a schedule, opens with "Hello, this is Mary from inTouch", and talks for what the families FAQ says is typically 10 to 20 minutes. No app, no device, no screen. The company behind it is AI Touch s.r.o. in Prague, and the FAQ lists English, Spanish, French and Czech.

SeniorTalk is a messenger bot. It lives inside WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or SMS, and on the higher plan it can also be called on a domestic number in the US, Canada, the UK or Australia, with landlines and smart speakers listed as supported and calling marked beta. You pick a persona at sign-up, Margaret O'Connor or Samuel Johnson or one you describe yourself.

So the first question isn't which is best. It's which one the person will actually use. Someone who already answers the phone will answer Mary. Someone who sends WhatsApp voice notes to grandchildren can use SeniorTalk tomorrow. ElliQ asks for a new object, a new habit and a working router, and in exchange offers the widest feature set by a distance.

What a First Year Costs

None of the ranking pages puts a price on anything. The vendors do, and the arithmetic is worth doing before the sales call.

Prices read from elliq.com/products/elliq, senior-talk.com/pricing and intouch.family on 2026-09-15. First-year figures are 12 months of billing plus any one-time fee; a trial cancelled before billing reduces them.

Two things jump out. ElliQ costs roughly two to five times the phone-based services in year one, and the gap is the price of hardware, installation support, a warranty and a caregiver app, all listed in the FAQ as included. The second is that the $249 is a lease initiation fee, not a purchase. "At this time, ElliQ is only leased through a membership." When the membership ends the device stops working and goes back in the box, and if it isn't returned within 45 days a $1,500 non-return fee applies. Keep the box.

The subsidised route exists and it's worth checking first. ElliQ's partner page describes the device as "available for eligible members through the fully subsidized program", with an eligibility form routed to a partner in your state and a waiting list when a programme is full. It doesn't name the states. The New York Office for the Aging appears to run one, judging by the URL ranking for this search, but that page refused my request and I won't describe a programme I couldn't read.

ElliQ's Pages Disagree With Each Other Three Times

This is the section I'd want anyone considering the robot to read. The product page, the FAQ and the terms of use are three documents, and they don't say the same thing.

On the trial refund, the FAQ says that if you return ElliQ within the 30-day window "you can return her for a full refund of the lease initiation fee and membership charges for that period". The terms of use, last updated 1 January 2026, describe the same refund "less a return fee in the amount $49.99, which is intended to cover for the shipping and the return costs". Fifty dollars isn't a scandal. It's still not a full refund, and the terms are the document you agreed to.

On renewal, the product page says the annual plan "will renew for another 12 months" and the 24-month plan "will renew for another 24 months". The terms say the opposite, and in your favour. Section 4.2 says a subscription "shall automatically renew to a new monthly Subscription Period, regardless of the expiring Subscription Period's basis", and explains that this is "in order to prevent Users from unintentionally being automatically bound by a new annual Subscription Period". I'd take the terms at their word here, but I'd also phone before the renewal date rather than trust either page.

On HIPAA, the FAQ says "Intuition Robotics is HIPAA compliant". Annex A of the privacy policy says the services "are not subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996" because they're digital companion services provided at the user's request, and that the company uses "best reasonable efforts to adopt the strict rules of HIPAA" anyway. Those are different claims. The second is the honest one, and the more useful one, because it tells you the blood pressure readings and pain scores you report to the device sit under a voluntary standard rather than a legal one.

The same privacy policy is candid about what it holds. The collected data includes "the contents of your interaction with ElliQ, which may include text/video/audio data of such communications". Retention after you stop using the service is "at least 6 years". Anonymised information may be shared with "partners, research groups, universities, advertisers or connected sites". The FAQ's version is shorter, that ElliQ "does not monetize personal data", listens only for its wake word when idle, and uses its cameras as a presence sensor rather than a recorder. Those two documents don't contradict each other. One is the reassurance and one is the schedule, and the six-year figure belongs in the decision.

SeniorTalk Has a Price Page and a Different Price in the FAQ

The pricing page shows two plans, $14.90 for the messenger version and $24.90 for calls and SMS with 180 voice minutes a month, both with a 30-day free trial. The FAQ on the same site says "there is a subscription fee of $5 per month for unlimited access" and lists only Facebook and WhatsApp as platforms. The privacy policy's last update is 25 October 2024. My reading is that the FAQ is stale and the pricing page is current, and I'd budget on the pricing page. It's still a site where the number depends on which link you clicked.

What SeniorTalk is selling to the family is spelled out on the homepage. "Get useful insights from an anonymized conversation history." "You'll get interaction data." And a feature, marked "coming soon", that analyses writing style, grammar and word usage to "reveal early signs of dementia or other age-related illnesses". Nothing on the site says how the anonymisation works or what an insight looks like, and the privacy policy never mentions conversation content. It defines Personal Information as email, a Messenger page URL, a name and contact details, a definition written for a website rather than for a service whose entire product is a transcript.

Cancelling is unusual, and I'd count it as a small point in the product's favour. You write to the bot and it unsubscribes you.

The Phone Call Takes Notes, and the Policy Says So

The phone-call model is the one I'd expect to work for the most people, and inTouch's documents are the clearest of the three about what happens to the conversation once it ends.

The FAQ, in three separate answers written for care facilities, says "Calls are not recorded". The privacy policy, effective 4 July 2025, says "We will generate transcripts of your calls", that it analyses them "to assess mood levels", that it generates "short summaries of your conversations", and that it "shares conversation summaries and mood analyses with designated family members". The families page markets exactly that. "Get notified when they answer a call, what was discussed, and how they felt."

Both statements can be true if "recorded" means an audio file and "transcript" means text. That's a distinction a lawyer would make and an 84-year-old on the phone would not. If you're buying this for a parent, the honest description is that Mary phones your mother, writes down what was discussed, scores her mood, and tells you. Whether that's a comfort or an intrusion depends on the parent, and it's a conversation to have before the first call rather than after.

Two smaller notes. The policy says the language models run on Google Cloud Platform and that a third-party provider ensures the data isn't used to train an outside model, which is more specific than most companion apps manage. And the price is printed three ways, EUR 29.90 on the homepage, $29.90 and EUR 29.90 on the families page, $29.95 in the FAQ. The trial is 14 days on every page, and cancellation is self-service through the account dashboard.

Who Reads the Conversation

This is the table I couldn't find anywhere in the results, and it's the one that decides the purchase.

Compiled from each vendor's FAQ and privacy policy, read 2026-09-15.

The row that matters is the fourth one. ElliQ's FAQ frames caregiver updates as something the user turns on. "If you choose to enable it, ElliQ can share helpful updates with your primary contact." The Connect app lets a family member suggest reminders and goals, and the user has to approve them on the device. That's the right way round. The two phone-and-messenger services are sold to the family with the reporting as a headline feature, and neither site says whether the older person can decline it.

I'd put it this way. ElliQ treats the older adult as the customer and the family as invited guests. inTouch and SeniorTalk treat the family as the customer and the older adult as the subject. Both models are legitimate, and the second is probably what a worried adult child wants. The person on the other end of the line should still know.

Where the General Apps Fit

The People Also Ask box for this search wants to know whether a free AI companion exists, and the answer it surfaces is a general-purpose app rather than anything built for older adults.

The general apps are a different product. Replika's help centre says chatting "will always be free", and that's true, but it's a smartphone app with an avatar and a subscription for voice calls, and nothing about it was designed around hearing loss, large buttons, medication or a landline. What the free tier includes is in the Replika review, and the store-listing audit of the wider field, including which apps declare sharing data with advertisers, is in the companion apps audit.

For a tech-comfortable 70-year-old with a phone and no interest in health tracking, a general app is a cheap place to start, and the free companion tiers piece covers which ones let you leave cleanly. For someone without a smartphone, the general apps are the wrong shelf, and the phone-call model is the one that meets them where they are.

Questions

Is there a free AI companion for seniors? Not a permanent one among the senior-specific products. SeniorTalk gives 30 days free on either plan and inTouch gives 14, both requiring a sign-up. ElliQ has no free tier but has a subsidised programme through state partners, with a waiting list where programmes are full. Among general apps, Replika's text chat is free by its own help centre's account.

What does an AI companion cost? On the pages loaded today, $178.80 a year for SeniorTalk's messenger plan, $298.80 for its calls plan, roughly EUR 358.80 for inTouch, and $837 for ElliQ's annual membership including the $249 fee, rising to $957 on the monthly plan. Those are the vendors' own figures, and inTouch's varies by page.

What can a senior actually use one for? ElliQ's list is the longest, with medication reminders, blood pressure and weight logging, guided seated exercise, video calls, bingo and virtual tours with other members, music and trivia. The phone services are conversation first, with inTouch adding reminder calls and morning check-ins as separate products aimed mostly at care facilities.

How would a 70-year-old with no smartphone use AI? By phone. inTouch calls any landline and SeniorTalk's higher plan gives a number to call, and neither needs an app or a screen. ElliQ needs Wi-Fi and a power socket but no phone at all, and the FAQ says most people are set up in five to ten minutes with phone support available.

What are the disadvantages? The NCOA explainer that ranks for this search names dependency, substituting the AI for people, and the vulnerability of someone with cognitive decline to confident wrong answers, and I'd take all three seriously. I'd add two from the documents. Transcripts and mood scores of a parent's conversations going to the adult child by default, and a six-year retention window at ElliQ after the membership ends. None of the three is a medical device. ElliQ's FAQ is blunt that it is "not an emergency device" and that in an emergency you call 911.

What I'd Do Before Paying

Start from the phone, not the feature list. If the person answers calls and likes talking, inTouch's 14-day trial costs nothing and needs nothing installed, and the question at the end of it is whether they looked forward to Mary. If they already use WhatsApp, SeniorTalk's 30 days answers the same question for less.

If the reminders, the health logging and the video calls are the point, ElliQ is the only one of the three that does them, and the annual plan with the 30-day trial is the version to test. Read section 4 of the terms of use before the renewal date, keep the box, and check the state programme page first, because the subsidised route exists and the retail one is $837 in year one.

Then tell the older person what the family will see. For inTouch and SeniorTalk that's a summary of the conversation and a mood reading. For ElliQ it's whatever they switch on. My concern with this category isn't that the reporting exists. It's that the person being reported on is the one least likely to have read the policy, and the fix is a five-minute conversation before the first call.