An AI Assistant for Parents With Flip Phones

If your parent still uses a flip phone, you have probably had this conversation. They have a question. You know an AI could answer it in ten seconds. But the AI lives in an app, the app needs a smartphone, and the smartphone is the thing they do not want.

So they call you instead. That is fine, until it is the fourth call today about how long to boil an egg.

There is a simpler route. An AI you can text works on the phone they already have.

How many older adults are in this spot

We combined three public datasets to size this. The arithmetic is ours; none of these sources state the final figures.

Pew Research Center's 2025 mobile fact sheet reports that among adults 65 and over, 95% own a cellphone of some kind and 78% own a smartphone. The Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 estimates put the 65 and over population at 61.2 million. Pew's 2025 ChatGPT survey finds that 10% of adults 65 and over have ever used ChatGPT.

Multiply the shares by the population and you get this:

• About 58 million older adults own a phone that can send a text (95% of 61.2 million).

• About 48 million own a smartphone (78%).

• About 10 million own a cellphone but not a smartphone (the 17-point gap). These are the flip phone and basic phone users, and no chatbot app can reach them.

• About 6 million have ever used ChatGPT (10%).

• So roughly 52 million older adults can text but have never used ChatGPT. That is about nine in ten of the ones who can text.

One caveat. The ownership and usage figures come from two different Pew surveys, so this is an estimate built from shares, not a count of individuals. It is close enough to make the point: the group that could use an AI by text is roughly eight times the size of the group that has tried the best-known chatbot.

The age gap is the widest gap in AI

Pew's ChatGPT survey has 58% of adults under 30 saying they have used it, 41% of those 30 to 49, 25% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and over. Adults under 30 are nearly six times as likely to have tried it as adults over 65. No other split Pew reports, education included, is that wide.

AARP's 2026 Tech Trends report, a survey of 3,838 adults fielded September 9 to October 6, 2025, fills in why. Among adults 50 and over, 19% use AI platforms such as ChatGPT or Copilot, 21% are interested but not using them, and 59% have no interest. Three in five say technology is not designed with their age in mind. Data privacy is the top barrier to trying anything new.

The same report has a detail that points to the fix. Texting is now the leading way adults 50 and over communicate. They do not need to learn texting. They already do it every day.

What it looks like in practice

Assistant Textapp is an AI that lives at a phone number. Your parent texts it a question and gets one short answer, the length of a normal text. No app, no login, no password to forget.

Mom: how long do I boil eggs for hard boiled

Assistant: Put them in cold water, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and cover for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool in cold water so they peel cleanly.

Dad: what does "your session has expired" mean on the bank site

Assistant: The site logged you out after sitting idle, usually for security. Nothing is wrong with your account. Close the page and log in again.

Mom: is it ok to take ibuprofen with my blood pressure pills

Assistant: Ibuprofen can raise blood pressure and interact with some BP medicines, so many doctors suggest acetaminophen instead. Please check with your pharmacist or doctor before taking it. This is general information, not medical advice.

That last reply is deliberate. For medical, legal and money questions it gives general information and says to check with a professional. It also cannot act in the world. It will not call the doctor, pay a bill or book anything, and if asked, it says so plainly. For a parent who worries about scams, an assistant that cannot move money is a feature.

Setting it up for them in five minutes

1. On their phone, save the number (518) 302-2982 as a contact. Call it "Assistant" or whatever they will remember.

2. Have them text Hi to it. The first reply confirms it is working.

3. Ask the first question together, something they actually wondered this week. The answer arriving as a plain text, on their own phone, is what makes it click.

4. Show them how to ask for more. If an answer is too short, replying "tell me more" expands it. There are no commands to learn.

5. Tell them it remembers. If they mention their town or that they garden, later answers will take that into account. Telling it to forget wipes everything it knows about them.

The first 20 messages are free, which is enough to find out whether they will use it. After that, one $9.99 a month subscription covers every Textapp, and you can pay for theirs just as you would for anything else on their phone.

Why not just give them a smartphone

Some parents will take one. AARP's numbers say smartphone ownership among adults 50 and over rose from 55% in 2016 to 90% in 2025, so most eventually do. But the 10 million older Americans in the gap are there by choice, not by accident. They have had a decade of smartphone offers and said no.

The texting route works on either phone. If they switch to a smartphone later, the number still works and the assistant still remembers them. If they never switch, they still get an AI. That is the whole point of building it as a text message.

Try it by text

Text Hi to (518) 302-2982 to start Assistant Textapp, on your phone or theirs. It works on any phone that can text, flip phones included, with no app and no account. The first 20 messages are free. After that, one $9.99 a month subscription covers every Textapp.

The full list of commands and limits is at textapp.co/apps/assistant.