Makeshift emergency button

Devices & Integrations
1

I wanted to share something I cobbled together.

I bought my dad an Apple Watch but he has issues with it lately. Either it’s not charged or he has difficulty with his fingers pushing the screen (big fingers, low dexterity) or he even forgets about it. And the thing is a phone call in the night will wake me up, but a simple text won’t.

So, I found this on Amazon for $20 and it’s pretty small, about the size of a candy bar.

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I created a virtual device using taustin’s work to use as a trigger and then used IFTTT to key off of that and call my phone via the IFTTT app.

If the button is pushed, I get a call on my phone that says “Dad needs help”. Simple but effective and cheap. I also might integrate Alexa at some point.

Hope someone finds this useful.

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2

That’s a creative idea! I also really like these buttons and have like 5. They have been rock solid and batteries have not needed replacing yet. Some get used several times a day and it’s been about 2 years.

You can catch them on sale several times a year for like 10-12.

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