A UK app built from real experience — for anyone who wants to know the people they love are okay.
I built DailyOK after my mum was diagnosed with dementia. Over time, my dad took on more and more of her care — a huge change after fifty years of marriage, and hard to watch for someone who’d always been so capable and stoical. I’m a full-time NHS cardiologist and don’t live nearby, so I called him most days just to know he was alright.
One moment has always stuck with me. My parents had finally treated themselves to tickets for the British Grand Prix, something they’d watched on TV for years but never quite gone to see in person. On the morning they were due to leave, Mum suddenly refused to go, and neither of them made it. I spoke to Dad on the phone that day and could hear how upset and angry he was. Looking back, it was almost certainly her illness talking — but at the time, it was just one more sign of how hard things had become for him.
After Mum moved into full-time care, Dad was living alone for the first time in decades — completely independent, but suddenly on his own. I didn’t want a quick “you okay?” to turn into another phone call neither of us always had time for; I just wanted one simple way to know he was alright each day. Nothing quite like it existed, so we built it.
DailyOK is a simple, reassuring way to stay connected with the people who matter most. Once a day, at a time that suits them, your loved one taps to say how they’re doing — Great, Okay, or Low. You get a notification, so you know without having to ask. If they don’t check in, you’re alerted too — so a missed morning becomes a phone call, not a worry that sits with you all day.
No GPS. No cameras. No complicated setup. Just one honest tap, and a little peace of mind.
Why DailyOK is different
- The mood check-in — not just “safe” or “not safe.” Great, Okay or Low lets you notice when something’s off, often before it becomes an emergency.
- Missed check-in alerts — so you’re told, not left wondering.
- Flexible billing — either person can set up the account, and either can pay.
- Single and Family plans — cover one relationship, or several, from one account.
- No location tracking, no cameras — reassurance, not surveillance.
- Set up in minutes, and simple enough for anyone to use in seconds a day.
I’ve used DailyOK every day since the earliest beta version, and it’s genuinely changed something for me.
My dad and I still speak on the phone a few times a week — that hasn’t changed. But in the weeks after my mum first went into full-time care, I found myself calling him almost every day, largely out of a compulsive need to know he was alright. Neither of us really wanted that. DailyOK let that ease, without losing the reassurance.
Most days his check-in just says “Great,” and I don’t need to do anything at all — though I’ll admit, seeing it come through each day still gives me a little boost, which is nice. But if it ever comes through as “Okay” instead, that’s usually enough of a prompt for me to give him a call and see what’s going on. And on the couple of occasions he’s missed a check-in altogether, knowing straight away — rather than wondering — meant I could call and quickly find out he was fine, just out of signal or had forgotten, rather than something being wrong.
It’s a small thing, but it’s given us both a bit more space, without either of us worrying.
— Dr Chris Critoph, creator of DailyOK
Read the full story of why I built DailyOK →
Built in the UK, for UK families — whether you’re keeping an eye on a parent who lives alone and is otherwise doing just fine, a partner, a grown-up child, or anyone you think about and can’t always be there for.
DailyOK is built around one simple idea: sometimes the most important message is just “I’m okay.”
Look for this icon on the App Store and Google Play.
DailyOK was created by Dr Chris Critoph, consultant cardiologist at Coastal Cardiology, drawing on his own family’s experience of caring for a parent living with dementia.
Want to know more about dementia?
I also write regularly about dementia and caring for ageing parents on my blog. If you’d like to read more, here’s a three-part series I wrote in 2024: