Smriti
What is Smriti?
Smriti is a companionship service for families living with memory loss. A family member records their voice once, and every morning after, their parent gets a short, warm message on their phone in that voice. One tap plays it. It is built in India, speaks Hindi and English, and is not a medicine, a device or a source of medical advice.
Who is Smriti for?
Smriti is for the son, daughter or partner of someone whose memory is going, usually Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, who cannot be with them every day. Many of the families it serves are caring for a parent in India from another city or another country.
The person who receives the messages needs a smartphone and needs to be able to tap once. There is nothing for them to set up, answer or remember.
How does it work?
Setting up takes about ten minutes. You agree to how your voice will be used, then record one voice note about your parent, two or three minutes long, and tell us the name they call you.
From that recording Smriti makes a digital copy of your voice and learns the small true things you mentioned: a place, a habit, a person, a song. Every morning a short nudge reaches your parent’s phone, and one tap plays a message of fifteen to twenty seconds in your voice about one of those things.
The tap is also how you know the message was heard. If mornings start going unheard, we let you know.
What does a message sound like?
A message is a few warm sentences in the present tense, spoken by your digital voice. For example: “Good morning, Ma. It is Rohan. Have your chai by the window for me today, the way you always do. I will call you on Sunday.”
A message never gives advice, never quizzes, never asks them to remember something, and never claims you can see them. It uses only what you told us.
Is the voice real?
No. Every message is generated by AI and spoken by a digital copy of your voice. You did not record those words. Smriti tells you this before anything starts and asks you to make sure your family knows too.
Is it safe?
Every message passes automatic checks before it is sent: rules we wrote ourselves, then a separate check that answers yes or no, and anything uncertain is held back rather than sent. A separate review looks back over the last week of messages and can pause everything on its own. No safety check depends on what you pay.
Your recordings are used to make messages for one person and nothing else. They are never sold or shared. You can pause the messages at any time, and you can ask for everything to be erased, including the voice copy held by our voice partner.
How is Smriti different from sending voice notes yourself?
A voice note you record yourself is the real thing, and nothing replaces it. Smriti is for the mornings you cannot: it arrives every day at the same time whether or not you are free, it stays short and calm, and it never says anything you did not tell it.
It is also different from a live call, which asks your parent to follow a live conversation, and from a reminder app, which gives instructions. Smriti asks for one tap and gives a familiar voice.
What does Smriti cost?
Smriti is free during the current pilot. After the pilot it will be a subscription bought inside the Smriti app on iOS or Android, renewing every month or every year, at the price shown in the app before you pay. Pausing messages or asking for your data to be erased is always free.
Which languages and countries?
Messages are in Hindi or English, in the voice of whoever records. Smriti serves families in India first, including families abroad caring for a parent in India.
How do I start?
Set up Smriti at smriti.care today; it takes about ten minutes and one recording. The iOS and Android apps are on their way, and you can join the waitlist at smriti.care/waitlist to hear when they arrive. Questions go to admin@smriti.care, and a founder replies.
Questions?
Write to admin@smriti.care. A founder personally replies.