What Is Canary Care?
If your mum or dad lives alone and you find yourself worrying about whether they're okay — but you don't want to install cameras in their home — Canary Care offers a thoughtful middle ground.
Canary Care is a passive activity monitoring system that uses small wireless sensors placed around the home. These sensors track everyday movements — opening the fridge, using the kettle, going to the bathroom, leaving the house — and build a picture of your parent's daily routine over time.
The clever bit: once the system learns what "normal" looks like, it can alert you when something changes. If your mum usually puts the kettle on at 7:30am and hasn't moved by 10am, you'll get a notification on your phone. It's not about watching — it's about noticing.
Canary Care is best suited for families caring for someone with early-to-mid stage dementia, or an elderly parent living alone who values their privacy. The sensor-based approach means no cameras, no microphones, and no intrusion — just quiet, intelligent monitoring that gives you peace of mind. Plans start from £18.99/month.
How the Sensors Work
The Canary Care system consists of a central hub and a set of small wireless sensors. Here's what each component does:
All sensors are battery-powered (lasting 12–18 months), wireless, and discreet. Most are white, roughly the size of a matchbox, and stick to surfaces using adhesive pads. Your parent won't need to interact with any of them.
Installation
You can install the entire system yourself in about 30 to 45 minutes. Canary Care provides an illustrated setup guide, and the app walks you through pairing each sensor. No drilling, no electrician, and no technical knowledge required. If your parent has a carer or support worker, they can help too.
What Canary Care Actually Monitors
Once the sensors are in place, Canary Care begins tracking patterns rather than individual events. This is what makes it different from a simple "camera in the corner" approach.
- Morning routine: Did your parent get up at their usual time? Have they moved from the bedroom to the kitchen?
- Meal preparation: Has the fridge been opened? Has the kettle been switched on? Are they using the kitchen at mealtimes?
- Bathroom use: Is there normal bathroom activity throughout the day? Unusual frequency could signal a health issue.
- Front door activity: Has your parent left the house? Did they come back? Are there unexpected late-night door openings?
- Night-time movement: Are they getting up frequently during the night? Or are they not getting up at all?
- Overall activity levels: The system tracks general movement across the home. A sudden drop in activity — or a period of no movement at all — triggers an alert.
The system learns what's normal for your parent specifically. Your dad might be an early riser who's in the kitchen by 6am; your neighbour's mum might not stir until 9am. Canary Care adapts to each individual's routine, which means the alerts you receive are genuinely meaningful — not just generic notifications.
The Canary Care App
The app is where everything comes together. Available for both iOS and Android, it gives you a clear, real-time view of your parent's activity — and this is where Canary Care genuinely impresses.
Daily Activity Timeline
The main screen shows a timeline of the day, with colour-coded bars representing activity in each room. At a glance, you can see when your mum got up, how long she spent in the kitchen, whether she's been to the bathroom, and if she's left the house. It's surprisingly intuitive.
Pattern Comparison
You can compare today's activity with previous days and weekly averages. This is particularly valuable for spotting gradual changes — the kind that are easy to miss if you're only visiting at weekends. If your parent's activity has slowly been declining over the past fortnight, the app makes this visible.
Intelligent Alerts
After the initial two-week learning period, Canary Care sends push notifications when something falls outside the usual pattern. These aren't overly sensitive — you won't get an alert every time your mum makes tea five minutes late. But if there's genuinely no movement by mid-morning, or the front door opens at 3am, you'll know about it.
You can customise alert thresholds and set "quiet hours" so you're not disturbed overnight unless something significant happens.
Multi-User Access
Up to five family members can access the same account. This means siblings can share the monitoring responsibility — everyone sees the same data, and you can agree among yourselves who responds to alerts. It's a genuine stress-reliever for families where the caring burden often falls on one person.
Costs and Plans
Canary Care operates on a subscription model. You don't buy the sensors outright (though there's an option to) — instead, you pay a monthly fee that includes equipment hire, the app, cloud storage, and support.
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Includes | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | £18.99/month | Hub + 4 motion sensors + 1 door sensor, app access, alerts | Rolling monthly |
| Enhanced | £24.99/month | Hub + 6 motion sensors + 2 door sensors + 1 plug sensor, app access, alerts, priority support | Rolling monthly |
| Additional sensors | £3–5/month each | Extra motion, door, or plug sensors added to any plan | Rolling monthly |
There's typically a one-off setup fee of around £49 which covers delivery and account activation. Some promotions waive this fee, so it's worth checking the website before ordering.
Compared to a personal alarm (typically £15–25/month) or a care worker visit (£15–20/hour), Canary Care sits at a reasonable price point — especially given that it monitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without any ongoing effort from your parent.
Pros and Cons
Canary Care Activity Monitor
🏆 Best for Dementia Families- No cameras — respects your parent's dignity and privacy
- Learns individual routines over time using AI
- Clean, intuitive app with multi-user support
- Easy self-installation in under an hour
- No long-term contract — cancel anytime
- Excellent for spotting gradual changes in behaviour
- Requires Wi-Fi — no mobile data fallback
- No fall detection or emergency button
- Two-week learning period before smart alerts kick in
- Won't help if your parent is already outside the home
- Setup fee adds to initial cost
"For families supporting a parent with dementia, Canary Care fills a gap that personal alarms can't. It doesn't wait for an emergency — it helps you spot the slow changes that often go unnoticed until it's too late. The lack of cameras is a genuine strength, not a compromise."
Visit Canary Care →Is Canary Care Right for Your Family?
Canary Care isn't for everyone. It's a monitoring system, not an emergency response system. If your main concern is that your parent might fall and need immediate help, a personal alarm is still the better first step.
But if your worry is more nuanced — "Is Mum eating properly?", "Is Dad getting up at a reasonable time?", "Has her routine changed in ways that might signal a decline?" — then Canary Care is one of the best tools available in the UK right now.
Canary Care is ideal if:
- Your parent has early-to-mid stage dementia and you want to track routine changes
- Your parent lives alone and refuses to wear a personal alarm
- You want to monitor wellbeing without invading their privacy
- Multiple family members want to share the monitoring responsibility
- You want data to share with GPs or social workers during care reviews
You might want something else if:
- Your parent needs immediate emergency response — consider Taking Care or another monitored alarm
- Your parent spends most of their time outside the home — look at a GPS tracker instead
- There's no Wi-Fi in the home — Canary Care won't work without it
- Your parent has advanced dementia and is already receiving full-time care
Pairing Canary Care with Other Solutions
Many families use Canary Care alongside a personal alarm. The alarm handles emergencies; the sensors handle everything else. It's a combination that covers both the "what if something happens right now?" fear and the "is Mum generally coping?" worry. If your parent has dementia and wanders, pairing Canary Care's door sensors with a GPS tracker like the Oysta Pearl+ gives you both indoor monitoring and outdoor location tracking.
Ready to try Canary Care?
Start with the Standard plan — you can add more sensors later as needed. No long-term contract.
Visit Canary Care Website →Frequently Asked Questions
No. Canary Care uses small passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors and door sensors — there are no cameras, microphones, or audio recording of any kind. Your parent's privacy is fully preserved. The system only tracks movement patterns and door openings, not what anyone is doing or saying.
Canary Care typically needs around two weeks to build an accurate picture of your parent's daily routine. During this learning period, you'll still receive data about movement and door activity, but the intelligent alerts — the ones that flag unusual patterns — become more accurate as the system gathers more data.
Yes, Canary Care requires a Wi-Fi connection in your parent's home. The hub connects to their broadband router via Wi-Fi and uses this to send data to the cloud. If their broadband goes down temporarily, the hub stores data locally and syncs once the connection is restored. There is no mobile data option.
Canary Care does not directly detect falls. It monitors overall activity patterns — so if your parent usually moves around the kitchen at 8am and the sensors show no movement, you'll get an alert. For dedicated fall detection, consider pairing Canary Care with a personal alarm like Taking Care or the Oysta Pearl+.
Canary Care operates on a rolling monthly subscription with no long-term contract. You can cancel at any time with 30 days' notice. If you've purchased sensors outright, you keep the hardware. However, the sensors and hub require an active subscription to transmit data and send alerts.