Austin, TX, Nov. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A 76-year-old woman in Denver was on her usual morning call when she started saying she felt panicky and couldn’t settle down. Nobody from her family was on the line. She was talking with Evelyn, the AI companion from ElderVoice. Shortly after, her daughter got a text.
An older man smiles while using his phone at home.
ElderVoice had flagged the call and alerted the daughter, Jennifer Walsh. She phoned her mother right away.
“One morning the call picked up that Mom was sounding really anxious and kept saying she couldn’t settle down and felt like she was panicking. I got a text within a minute. I called her right away, stayed on the phone with her, and she calmed down. Without that alert I wouldn’t have known anything was off until later that day. It made a real difference,” Walsh said.
That’s the job ElderVoice was built to do. It gives a family a reason to call when it matters.
Why the calls matter
Loneliness is common among older Americans, and it’s getting worse. National research published in 2025 found that 40% of Americans age 45 and older feel lonely, up from 35% in 2018. For someone who lives alone, a call where someone asks how the garden is doing can be the best part of the day.
ElderVoice works on the phone a parent already has. Families pick the days and times, and the companion calls. It chats about the day, gives gentle medication reminders and remembers things from earlier calls, like a grandchild’s name or a story told last week. So the next call picks up where the last one ended.
“My mom used to say the days just ran together. Now she tells me about her conversations with Evelyn. She remembers that my mom likes her tea a certain way and asks about the garden. Mom actually looks forward to the call. She told me last week, ‘It’s nice to have someone who calls and just talks.’ I haven’t heard her say that in a long time,” said Sarah Chen, whose 78-year-old mother lives in Portland, Oregon.
These are reports from early families, not results from a clinical study.
What families get after each call
After every call, families get a short summary with notes on how their parent seemed. If a parent says something that points to serious emotional distress, or their mood stays low over several calls, ElderVoice texts the family members they picked. It doesn’t diagnose anything, and it isn’t a stand-in for a doctor. It gets the news to the family sooner. There’s nothing for the parent to install or learn. The phone rings. They pick up.
How it started
Founder Cody McLain, an Austin entrepreneur and author of From Foster Care to Millionaire, got the idea from a friendship with an older neighbor. They had dinner together, watched movies and talked for hours. Still, the neighbor often said how lonely the long days at home were, with only his cats around. McLain spent part of his own childhood in foster care, where he often felt alone and unheard, so he knew exactly what his neighbor meant.
“Aging shouldn’t mean going days without a real conversation,” McLain said. “We want the call to be something a parent looks forward to, and a heads-up for the family when it’s time to reach out.”
Price and availability
ElderVoice is available in the United States. The Weekly Check-in plan costs $25 a month for three calls a week. The Daily Companion plan, with daily calls and distress text alerts, is listed at $49 a month. New families get a free seven-day trial, and anyone can hear a sample call at eldervoice.com.
ElderVoice is a companion service that keeps families informed. It isn’t an emergency monitoring system, and it doesn’t replace doctors, emergency services or regular contact with family.
About ElderVoice
ElderVoice is an AI companion service that calls older adults by phone for friendly conversation, wellness check-ins, and reminders, helping families stay connected without requiring an app or Wi-Fi.
Press Inquiries
Cody McLain
me [at] codymclain.com
https://www.eldervoice.com
