How to send medicine reminders
on WhatsApp.

Step by step

1. Install AlongWell. Install it free from the App Store or Google Play on your own phone and sign in with your phone number.
2. Add the person. Add them as a family member, with the name you use for them in reminders, such as Mum or Dad.
3. Add their medicines. Type each medicine the way the prescription has it, such as “Metformin 500 BD after food”, and check the times.
4. Connect their WhatsApp. AlongWell asks whether to remind them on WhatsApp. Enter their WhatsApp number with its country code and send the invite.
5. They reply YES. The invite asks them to confirm. Until they reply YES, their reminders come only to you.

What arrives on their phone

Each dose is a message of its own at its time, such as “A little reminder for Mum” over “Metformin 500 mg · after breakfast. One tablet”. Three buttons sit under it. Taken marks the dose and answers “Marked as taken.” Skip today keeps it in the record as skipped, not missed. In 30 min sends the reminder again half an hour later.

What you see

Their reply marks the dose in your app as if you had marked it yourself, and Supplies counts it. If a dose isn’t marked in time you get a “Still waiting” notification, and, if your own WhatsApp is connected, a message from which you can call them, mark it for them or send one more reminder.

Good to know

They don’t need AlongWell on their phone, only WhatsApp, and any number with its country code can be invited. Replying “stop” to an AlongWell message turns the reminders off for that number, and you can disconnect it from the app at any time. WhatsApp doesn’t tell AlongWell whether a message was read, so a dose shows as marked only once someone replies.