FonTag.com is a family communication tool I built to make sure my mom got at least a phone call, from one of us, every day.
Transcripts/Recordings
FonTag does not capture exact conversations between you and your loved ones. That is completely private.
Circle Notes
FonTag does capture meta data about your interactions with your loved ones. FonTag revolves around the Circle Notes.
When you use the FonTag action buttons on your dashboard to place a call, FonTag "logs the call".
 FonTag action buttons |
What that means is that FonTag automatically creates a Circle Note, with the current timestamp, and whether it was a call, visit, text or email. The timestamp, and type of interaction are meta data - or information about the interaction.
After the call, you enter a "quick note" into FonTag, which is shared with all of your fellow circle members the next time they log in. If you think about it, the quick note, is also meta data, because it is information about the interaction. The actual interaction is not recorded.
This allows everyone to see an accurate timeline of interactions with your loved one. This also allows you to easily share information privately, with everyone who needs to know it, when they'd like to know it.
Circle notes are entered manually by circle members.
By default, circle notes are not sent out to the circle, except in cases where you broadcast a circle note to all circle members. Circle members check-in with FonTag to see what's been going on with their loved one. They see the circle notes that you have entered, the next time they check-in, (by default).
Each circle member will have the option to get a daily summary sent to them via email, or they can have every circle note pushed out to them as they occur. This is not the default behavior though, you can go into your account preferences to set this up.
Notifications
Push notifications are notifcations about the circle notes.
They are reminders or calls to action, like "Hey, Someone please call Mom" or "Don't forget to enter a quick note about your visit today".
They can be special circle notes that were broadcast (see below).
They can be circle notes that you've opted to be sent each time they occur.
They could be reports that you've opted to be sent regularly.
They could be system messages, reminding you to add money towards your text messaging account, or informing you of a new feature that has become available.
Broadcast Circle Notes
A circle note can be marked for broadcast.
Use this option when you want to push a message out to the whole circle without waiting for them to check-in.
By default, FonTag will check each member's preferences, and quiet times, and send the messages during their available times.
In an emergency, FonTag can be used to push out a message to the whole circle, ignoring their preferences. Please only use this option in real emergencies. If someone in your circle over-uses this option, it can be like "crying wolf". If you have someone like that in your circle, please let us know, and we can address that for you. FonTag believes that its important to have this feature in the case of real emergencies, which unfortunately, are not uncommon in our elderly population. In an emergency, the primary caregiver can be trying to juggle a lot of things at the same time. Getting a message out to everyone shouldn't be a concern. If someone in your circle mis-uses this feature, report them, and we can take away that privilege.