Which phone should she have?

In short

The phone she already knows how to use is usually the right one to keep; muscle memory can outlast memory for names and instructions.
A landline in its usual spot removes two hard steps at once: finding the phone, and remembering to charge it.
A big-button or photo phone trades a directory of numbers for one button per person, once dialling from memory has grown hard.
Voice Companion needs only one thing from her phone: one number, saved under your name, the way any other contact would be.

Her own mobile

If your wife is comfortable with her mobile, start there. Keep important contacts easy to find and avoid rearranging the screen unnecessarily. After an update, check together that she can still find the controls she uses. Keep security updates enabled.

A landline

A phone in a familiar place can be easier to find. A corded handset may also be easier to manage than a mobile that needs charging. Cordless phones need charged batteries, and many home phone services depend on power or internet. Ask the provider how the phone works during an outage.

A big-button or photo phone

When she can no longer hold onto a directory of numbers, a phone with a small set of large photo buttons, each one dialling a single person, removes the step that has grown hardest: remembering who to call and finding their number. These are made, as mobiles and as landline handsets, by several manufacturers. We will not name or endorse one here; what suits her depends on hand strength, eyesight and which faces or buttons she can still tell apart. Ask your local Alzheimer Society what families near you tend to use, and try a phone in her hands before you commit to it. A short trial, a week or two before you commit to buying one outright, tells you more than a spec sheet ever will: whether she reaches for the right button without being shown, and whether the size and weight suit her grip.

A tablet that makes calls

A tablet with a large screen and one or two calling apps set up in advance can suit someone who still manages a touchscreen more easily than small buttons. It suits families already used to video calls, since seeing your face can settle her further than hearing your voice alone. It suits her less well if she has never used a touchscreen, since one wrong tap can end a call she meant to keep, or open something she cannot find her way back out of. A tablet propped in a stand, in the same spot on the same table, removes one more decision for her, since she never has to find it or hold it steady, only touch the one thing that answers.

Scams and wrong numbers

As dialling and recognising numbers grow harder for her, so does telling a real call from a scam. Ask her phone company about call blocking and screening; most offer a service that filters likely scam calls before her phone even rings, without touching the one thing that matters, her ability to take a call from you. What we would not do is take the phone away as a first response. A phone that no longer rings does not stop a scam from reaching her some other way. It only removes the one line she has to reach you. A short, calm conversation after a close call, without alarm in your voice, tends to teach more than a lecture does; save the details for her phone company or the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre rather than for her.

What Voice Companion needs from her phone

The device must be able to dial an ordinary local phone number. Voice Companion works with, a mobile, a landline, a big-button handset or a tablet with a phone-calling service, because all it needs is one number, saved in her phone under your name, the way any other contact would be. There is nothing to install on her side, and nothing new for her to learn. Whichever phone she is already using stays hers to keep using afterward; nothing about her day-to-day handset changes because of it. How it works.

Questions people ask about this

Should I upgrade her to a smartphone so we can video call?

Only if she already manages a touchscreen comfortably. A smartphone adds steps a simpler phone does not: unlocking the screen, finding the right app, tapping the right face. Where those steps have grown hard, a simpler phone usually serves her better than a more capable one.

She keeps losing her mobile around the house. What helps?

A corded phone in a familiar place is easier to find. If a mobile matters to her for other reasons, a charging dock in the same place every time, and a tracker on her keyring or bag, can help without changing the phone itself.

How do I get her off the phone with a scam caller?

Gently, and without arguing about whether the call is real; end it together rather than debating it in the moment. Afterward, call her phone company about call blocking, and consider whether a big-button phone limited to saved contacts would keep the call from reaching her at all.