The key advantage of smartphone is the flexibility to enhance its functions and meet the needs of different people by the thousands of APPs available. The following APPs can be used to protect elderly and vulnerable individuals.

1. GPS locator

Many elderly suffer from Dementia and could not find their way home. Mentally challenged people and those with autism also could get lost, making their family members running around to look for them. The easiest way to locate them is to install GPS location APP (such as Life360 and GPS Phone Tracker) into the smartphone of the elderly and their family members. These kind of APP can show the location of the elderly and battery level, so that family members can find their elderly before their smartphones are running out of battery.

Most of these APPs have a free version and a paid version. The free version only has basic functions while the paid version offers additional features. For Life360, the paid version could track the route of the users and inform the caregivers when they have reached home.

Most smartphones have one or two built-in cameras. In some critical situations, such as when the elderly fall on the ground and lost consciousness, the caregiver can use an APP to get access to the camera of the elderly. As this is a remote monitoring function, the caregiver must get the endorsement from the elderly and their willingness to co-operate. To make it work, the elderly must put the smartphone in a specific location when they are inside the flat. They also need to ensure that the camera of the smartphone is not obstructed. In this way, the smartphone has become a CCTV system.