What the box knows, what the messages mean, and how to answer them.
The one thing worth knowing. The box can tell when its lid is opened. That is all it can tell. It does not know what is inside, whether anything was swallowed, or who opened it. Everything below is built on that, and nothing here is a medical device.
How it works
You pick a window: a stretch of the day when the box should be opened, say 8:00 to 9:00 in the morning. Open it any time you like. If the window passes and the lid has not moved, we send a text.
Opening the box early still counts. Somebody who takes their pills at 7:45 for an 8:00 window has not missed anything.
There is a ten minute grace after the window shuts before anybody is told, so nobody is texted while they are standing at the cupboard.
A box can have one, two or three windows a day, and a different one at the weekend.
The text, and how to answer it
A missed window sends a message like this:
DailyDoseBox: Jared, we have not seen Mum's box opened for the morning today. Reply DONE, SNOOZE, FORGOT, or tell us what happened.
You can reply with any of these. They are not case sensitive, and near enough is good enough.
DONE
It is handled. No more alerts about that box today. We record that you said so, never that the box confirmed it. Also accepts TAKEN, TOOK, GOT IT, HANDLED, ALL GOOD.
SNOOZE
Hold off for thirty minutes. Reply again to push it out again. Also accepts LATER, WAIT, HOLD.
AWAY
You are not near the box. We ask when to check in again today, and you answer with a time: 5pm, in 3 hours, or never. Also accepts NOT HOME, AT WORK, OUT OF TOWN.
FORGOT
The honest one. Same as AWAY: we ask when to come back to you.
anything else
Write what is going on in your own words. It is saved to that box's day and shows in the app. It does not change the watching.
STOP
Ends every message to your number, permanently. Use DONE if you only want today to be quiet.
If a window stays missed, we ask twice more, thirty minutes apart, and then stop. Three messages in all. Opening the box, or replying DONE, ends them immediately.
Filling the pillbox
Refilling opens the lid, often several times, and that must never be mistaken for a dose.
Tap I'm filling it on the box's card for an hour of quiet.
Or tell us your fill day during setup. We stop watching once that day's last window has passed, so choosing a day never weakens that day.
You still get the "box was opened" message if you have that switched on, and it says it was a fill. The lid really did move, and we do not hide that.
Setting a box up
Every box has three words printed on a label underneath it, like maple.river.otter. That is its name in our system. In the app you can either scan the label or type the words, and then choose how you want to be asked:
Answer a few questions and we ask one thing at a time.
Fill it in yourself if you would rather see every setting at once.
You can swap between them at any point and nothing you have answered is lost.
Who gets the messages
Only people who have said yes, from their own phone.
Adding somebody sends them one text asking permission. They reply YES and nothing before that.
You can pick different people for each box, and how loud it gets.
Anybody can reply STOP at any time, and that ends it for their number.
When the box goes quiet
A sensor that stops reporting is not the same as a missed dose, and we never dress one up as the other.
Not reporting means we have not heard from the box. Check it is powered and the hub is plugged in nearby.
Battery low means one bar left on the lid sensor. Replace it soon rather than urgently.
If we have heard nothing at all since setup, the app says so plainly rather than showing a calm green card.
Privacy
We store the times the lid moved, your settings, and the phone numbers on your account.
We never know what is in the box.
Notes you text back are kept against that box's day so the household can read them.
Nobody is contacted without a recorded yes from their own number.
Still stuck?
Write to [email protected] and say which box and roughly when the trouble started. The three words from the label help most of all.