Questions & answers
Fair questions. Straight answers.
The things families actually ask — including the uncomfortable ones.
Getting started
A quiet companion for families caring for aging parents. It watches the rhythms your parents choose to share — health signals from their own devices, read-only bank activity — and most days tells you one thing: all is well. When something is genuinely worth a look, the right family member hears about it, calmly.
One family member creates the family and invites the others — parents, siblings, anyone who shares the caring. For health signals, your parent needs an iPhone (an Apple Watch adds more, but isn't required). For Money watch, they connect their bank through Plaid in a couple of minutes. Nothing to install in the home, nothing to wear that they don't already wear.
It was designed for exactly them. Parents get their own view of FamSteady with larger type, plain words, and no dashboards — just their day, who's looking out for them, and one-tap calls to family. Most of the "work" happens automatically after a one-time setup that a family member can sit alongside for.
We'll announce pricing at launch — the waitlist hears first. If your employer offers FamSteady as a benefit, it's free to you: they share a code, you redeem it at signup, and your family's subscription is covered.
Privacy & dignity
No — and we built the product so it can't quietly become that. Parents connect their own accounts and health data, see exactly what's shared in their own app, and can disconnect anything with a tap. There are no cameras, no microphones, and no location tracking — ever. We call the difference watching over, not watching; the full picture is on our Trust & privacy page.
Whatever their role allows, and nothing more. Caregivers can see health and financial status for the parents they look after; view-only members see how things are going without the details; parents always see their own data and who else can see it. Permissions are enforced by the system, not by promises.
Anytime. Health sharing and bank connections can each be disconnected with a tap from their own app, and the family's visibility ends immediately. Consent isn't a form signed once — it's the standing state of the product.
Aggregate participation only — never who's in your family, never health, never finances. FamSteady is built so the company paying for the benefit cannot see into it.
Health signals
Apple Health today: steps, sleep, and heart rate from an iPhone or Apple Watch, shared with your parent's consent. More sources are on the roadmap. FamSteady learns your parent's personal baseline and watches for meaningful drift — a quiet three-month change, not one slow afternoon.
Everything FamSteady notices arrives as one of four calm phrases — all is well · for your info · worth a look · needs attention — routed to the family members who should know. No sirens, no scores, no 2am panic. The research behind what we watch explains why these particular signals matter.
No. FamSteady doesn't diagnose, treat, or replace clinicians — it surfaces patterns worth discussing with family and doctors, earlier than they'd otherwise be noticed. For emergencies, always contact emergency services.
Money watch
No — impossible by design, not by policy. Bank connections run through Plaid and are read-only; bank usernames and passwords never touch our servers. FamSteady can see that something happened; nobody can make something happen.
Plaid connects thousands of US banks and credit unions — if your parent's bank works with apps like Venmo, it almost certainly works here.
Duplicate charges, unfamiliar merchants, unusual amounts or timing, and patterns consistent with common scams targeting older adults. Flags arrive as worth a look, not accusations — most have innocent explanations, and that's the point of checking gently. Our guide to scams that target parents covers what to do when one doesn't.
Didn't find yours? Write to us — a human answers.
