What happens if they don't answer?
A calm walk-through of how MyDailyCheck handles a missed check-in — without panicking, without overreacting, and without making decisions only a person should make.
The short answer
We don't panic. We retry. We try a different method. Then we quietly reach out to the people you chose — one at a time. If nobody can reach them, you hear about it directly so you can decide what to do next.
MyDailyCheck never calls 911 automatically. That decision belongs to you, not to a robot.
How a missed check-in actually unfolds
Approximate timings. You decide the exact rhythm — tighter for a higher-risk schedule, more relaxed for a light safety net.
Their usual time
The daily check-in goes out.
A short, friendly call (or text) at the time you and they chose together. Most days end here — they press 1, the dashboard turns green, and that's it.
A few minutes later
No answer? We try again — and we'll switch methods if it helps.
If the first call goes unanswered, we wait a few minutes and try again. If the first attempt was a call, the next might be a text — whichever's more likely to reach them. We retry quietly. Nobody's alarmed yet.
A little longer
Still nothing? We start walking the contact list — one person at a time.
Rather than blasting everyone at once, we reach out to the first person on the list you set up — usually a partner, a sibling, or a trusted neighbour. We give them a few minutes to check in. If they can't, we move on to the next person. Calmly. In order.
If nobody can reach them
A wider alert goes out, and you hear about it directly.
If we've walked the whole list without confirmation that they're okay, we broadcast to everyone you trust at once — and we send you a direct alert so you know it's time to make a decision. Whether that means driving over, calling a neighbour, or dialling 911 yourself, you're the one who chooses what's next.
Most of the time
It ends like this.
They were in the shower. Or the garden. Or at a neighbour's. Someone gets through, presses 1, replies OK — and the alert clears. Nobody's day got hijacked. The system did exactly what it was supposed to do.
You decide the rhythm.
The defaults work for most families. But you can dial it in.
How fast we escalate
A high-risk schedule might bring family in within 15 minutes of a missed call. A relaxed safety net might take a couple of hours. You set it.
Who gets called first
You put your contact list in priority order. Maybe the neighbour who lives next door comes before the daughter three provinces away.
When to involve 911
Some families want a 911 prompt at the end of a missed-check-in cascade. Most don't. It's never on by default. You choose.
A real morning
Margaret is 78 and lives alone in Stratford. Her check-in is at 8 AM.
One Tuesday, the 8 AM call goes unanswered. So does the 8:10 text. The 8:25 follow-up call too. At 8:35, MyDailyCheck quietly texts her son David — first on her contact list. He tries her landline and her cell. No answer. By 8:50 he's in the car, just to be sure.
She'd been in the garden. Heard the phone faintly, came inside, pressed 1. By the time David arrived twenty minutes later she had the kettle on. The alert had already cleared.
Nobody's day got hijacked. No 911 call. No alarmed neighbours. The system did exactly what it was supposed to do — gave the right person a quiet heads-up at the right time.
What MyDailyCheck is not.
We're built to be a daily safety net, not an emergency response service. Being honest about that is part of how we earn your trust.
- Not a 911 replacement. In an emergency, call 911 directly.
- Not a medical alert pendant. We do not detect falls.
- Not a camera, microphone, or location tracker.
- Not a 24/7 human-monitored call centre.
- Not an app to install — just a phone call.
- Not constant monitoring — one quick check-in a day.
Curious about the setup before you decide? See how it works →
Or read the full FAQ for more on safety, privacy, and pricing.
Quiet mornings. Clear plan for the loud ones.
Three minutes to set up. Seven days free to try.