We’re building this together.

A small group of families, all using MemoriGems at the same time with someone they love, while we watch closely and change what isn’t working. You are not testing a finished thing — you are the reason parts of it will change. There is nothing to score and nothing you can get wrong.

Mid‑September to mid‑November — about eight weeks. Every family starts together rather than trickling in, which is what lets us keep the group small and give each family real attention.

No. The app closes at the end of the pilot while we build what comes next — but everything your family made is gathered into one place and handed to you: the audio and photos as real files, with a page that plays them on any computer, with no account and no internet. Yours to revisit, for as long as you keep it. You will not need MemoriGems, or us, to open it again.

When MemoriGems opens more widely, founding families hear from us first and keep a founding rate.

Two or three hours across the whole eight weeks, and most of that a few minutes at a time. There is no quota, no streak and nothing that counts down at you.

Two things. Use it as life allows — and tell us the truth about it. That means a short check‑in each week, where a few sentences is plenty, and one longer conversation at the end. Nobody is graded, and a week where you sent nothing is worth telling us about too.

Yes, and you don’t owe us a reason. Pause, stop, or pull out entirely — nobody is penalised and your place is not given away. Life happens when you are caring for someone, and we are not here to make it harder. However far you got, you still receive everything your family made.

Sitting down to record your voice for someone whose memory is changing is not a small thing, and plenty of people find they can’t on the first day. Don’t force it. If you want to be in the pilot anyway and start slowly, say so — and if you would rather wait for another time, tell us that instead. Knowing why a family held back is worth as much to us as anything a family sends.

That is often the moment MemoriGems is for. Names and faces can go before voices do — families tell us the sound of someone familiar lands when a photograph on its own does not. It does not fix anything. It gives you something to offer on a day when you have run out of things to say.

That works. Two ways in: they have a phone or tablet of their own that they can use, or someone who loves them visits and opens the Gems together on a visitor’s device. Both are real ways to be part of the pilot — and the second one is worth saying out loud, because sitting beside someone while a Gem plays is not a lesser version of this.

No. A Gem arrives as a link they can open on any phone or computer. On a tablet you set it up once with a code — no password, nothing for them to remember, nothing for them to install.

No. Nothing buzzes, rings or emails. A Gem waits quietly until they open their page, which is deliberate — a device that demands attention is the last thing a person with memory changes needs.

No. A reasonably current phone, tablet or computer with a web browser is enough — iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows or Mac. There is nothing to install, and it does need an internet connection to send and to open a Gem.

One honest gap: we have not tested an Amazon Fire tablet yet. If that is the device you have, tell us when you write — we would rather test it with you before you start than have you find out the hard way.

Then we set it up with you, on a call, and stay on the line until a first Gem has actually arrived. The hardest part of MemoriGems is deciding what to say, not working the app — recording is one button, and you can throw a recording away and start again as many times as you like.

Only the people your family adds to the circle. We can see how often the app is used — that is how we learn what to fix — and we tell you plainly that we do. The recordings themselves stay inside your family.

Nothing during the founding families pilot. What it costs afterwards has not been decided yet — and we would rather tell you that than put up a number we are not ready to stand behind. Founding families will hear it from us first, and keep a founding rate.

Both of us. Lisette and Edwina — the two people who built MemoriGems — are your point of contact for the whole eight weeks: setting up, questions, and anything that goes wrong. There is no support queue and no handover to somebody else. That is the reason the pilot is deliberately small.

MemoriGems is made by HuLux Innovations LLC, a small company working on human‑centered communication in dementia and elder care. It was built by two people who have sat in these rooms themselves, and the work behind it was presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in July 2026.

Read the longer version of the story.