You set it up.
They just press.
GoButtons turns one device into a few large buttons. Someone presses one, and every phone connected to it gets a notification — with a name attached to whoever answers.
GoButtons is software. It runs on a phone or tablet you already own — nothing physical is sold or shipped.
Setting it up takes an account. Keeping it takes a card. Pressing takes neither.
The pusher
Waiting for a reply
A receiver
Kitchen
I need help
Waiting for a reply
Two devices, two jobs
- Pusher
- The device with the buttons on it, and the person using it. No account, no password, nothing to type. It is built for someone who may have low vision, a tremor, or who simply needs one obvious thing to do.
- Receiver
- A phone that gets the messages. This is the side with the account, and the side that decides what the buttons say. Receivers reply, clear a message, and change the buttons whenever what is needed changes.
Care was the first thing people used this for, and it still shapes how the pusher side is built. The two words are deliberately not care-specific: the same pair of devices works for a workshop, a classroom, or a front desk.
Connecting a device takes one number, said out loud
When you add a station, or add someone who should get the messages, GoButtons gives you a 12-digit code. Read it down the phone, or write it on a sticky note.
Example setup code: 2399-0123-0019
- On the new device, type the code. There is nothing to sign into.
- It is connected, and the code is used up.
- Lost or replaced that device? Issue a new code. The station keeps its name, its buttons, and everyone it reaches.
The code works once and expires after a week, which is what makes it safe to say aloud — overhearing it a month later is worth nothing. There is nothing on the station itself to change, either: the buttons are set by the people on the other end.
More than one person can be on the other end
A pusher can have several receivers, and all of them are notified. When one of them answers, the others see who — so nobody assumes somebody else has already gone, and nobody arrives to find two people there ahead of them.
Any receiver can reply, clear the message, or change what the buttons say. The buttons belong to the pusher, not to whichever receiver set them up, so people can join and leave without anything being lost.
Who is using this
The same two devices, in rooms that have nothing else in common. Each of these says how it works in that setting, and what it does not do there.
- families Someone at home who needs to reach you without shouting, phoning, or learning an app.
- schools and classrooms A pupil who cannot reliably get an adult’s attention across a room.
- workshops and day services People at benches or stations who need a supervisor, across noise and distance.
- front desks and counters Someone on a desk who needs a colleague from the back, without leaving it.
How it compares with things it is not
People arrive here having searched for something else, and sometimes the something else is the right purchase. Each of these says where the other thing wins, and means it.
- Alert pendants A pendant summons a monitoring centre in an emergency. GoButtons sends a specific message to specific people, and there is no emergency in it.
- Nurse call Nurse call is installed, regulated and answerable. GoButtons is an app on devices you already own, and answers to nobody.
- AAC devices An AAC device helps somebody build whatever they want to say. GoButtons sends a handful of messages that somebody else wrote.
Writing on the part everybody skips
How a request gets worded, who answers it, and whether the notification arrives at all. Useful whether or not you use this — and where we are not the right people to ask, each one says who is.
- When asking stops Requests get quieter long before anyone notices, and it reads as good news. What makes asking expensive, and what brings it back.
- Suggesting a button Most refusals are of the terms, not the help. What is usually being refused, and what can be offered instead.
- Wording a button Why “Assistance required” goes unpressed and “Come and chat” does not, and how to write the four or five that earn their place.
- Deciding who goes When three people could answer, often none does — and sometimes all three do. What actually fixes it.
- Notification reliability Nine reasons a phone stays silent, in the order they are likely, and what to test before anyone depends on it.
- Low vision and tremor The measurements we hold ourselves to, published in full, and why the usual accessibility minimums are far too small here.
What it costs
$9.99 a month covers one station and one person besides you, after two weeks free with no card. Extra stations are $2.99 each and extra people are $4.99 each. There is no free tier.
- A station
- One phone or tablet of your own, with buttons on it.
- A person
- One more person who receives presses and can reply.
The pricing page has the sums worked out for a few ordinary setups, and what happens to the money if you stop.
If a payment ever fails, the buttons do not go dark. Every station keeps working and drops back to a single I need help button until it is sorted out. Someone's way of asking for help should not depend on whether a card expired.
Where this is up to
GoButtons is not in the app stores yet, so there is nothing to download from this page. It is being tested on real iOS and Android devices, and iOS builds go to a small group through TestFlight.
This page will say so plainly on the day that changes. Until then it would be easy to put a store badge here, and it would not be true.
If you want to know when that changes, write to hello@gobuttons.app. It reaches a person, not a mailing list — there is nothing to sign up for here, and nothing to unsubscribe from.