How a New App Is Bringing Grandparents and Grandkids Together

• Digital platform aims to help grandparents and grandkids stay connected.
• Staying connected can benefit both grandparents and grandkids.
• The creator of the platform uses it with his kids and parents.

When Eben Pingree learned that his mom and father-in-law were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease around the same time, he immediately thought of his three young children.

“One of the reactions my wife and I had was just this spike in urgency around making sure our kids felt as deep of a connection with them as much as possible in this pretty rapidly shrinking window,” he told Healthline.

Pingree began searching for technology that could help his kids and their grandparents build a connection.

“We were pretty underwhelmed with the options out there, so I decided to try to build something myself,” said Pingree.

He created the digital platform Kinsome. Kids use an app to engage in the platform, while grandparents get notifications via email or text that allow them to interact with their grandkids.

A robot named Kinzey engages kids in conversation, helping unearth interesting updates for grandparents. Based on each specific update, Kinzey also suggests questions to ask grandparents about their lives. The robot also facilitates asynchronous games and activities that the different generations can engage in with minimal parental supervision.

“At the highest level, the goal is to bring the two generations together and help them find shared interests but also give them more touch points and context for what’s going on in each other’s lives,” said Pingree.

Because the platform is geared toward grandchildren between the ages of six and eleven, Pingree prioritized making the app fun to keep kids’ attention by using gamification and making the app conversational so kids want to send quick updates to their grandparents.

Since the app focuses on younger kids, the average grandparent is typically in their 60s and 70s, which means most of them have used a smartphone for several years.

“But with that said, we have really focused on making the grandparent experience as simplified as possible,” said Pingree.

For instance, when a kid creates an update, the grandparent is sent a text or email with what is called a Magic Link. When the grandparent clicks on the link, it opens a web experience with the kid’s update.

“So with one click, no app download, and no password, they’re able to be hearing their grandkid’s voice and then with another click recording their response and taking part in any activity the kid started in the app,” Pingree said.

While developing the platform, Pingree’s team talked to hundreds of grandparents about their lives. They gathered insight into whether they were lonely, what they missed from their younger years, and what they wished they could add to their lives.

“We were shocked by how frequently they brought up wanting to play a bigger role in their grandkids’ lives,” he said. “They were often talking about how when they had grown up, their own grandparents had been integral in their childhood, and they didn’t necessarily feel like they were doing the same for their own grandkids.”

The report’s findings — that lacking social connection increases the risk of premature death by more than 60% and that Americans communicated almost 40% less with family members outside of their immediate household since 2003 — gave Pingree the push he needed to go forward with Kinsome.

“A lot of times people just assume a grandkid and grandparent, because they’re in the same family, automatically have this bond, but they need to build up the foundation for a relationship, and that’s really hard to do if you’re getting on a Facetime call once a week or once a month. So, we’re trying to fill in that gap,” he said.

Some factors that contribute to loneliness include separation from friends or family, lack of social support, and feeling a lack of purpose.

Pingree hopes Kinsome helps build connections between the generations because it offers opportunities to regularly communicate with each other. He also hopes it gives grandparents a sense of purpose because “they’re feeling like they are playing a role in the next generation of their family,” he said.

Preeti Malani, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, said that loneliness should be considered a health condition that requires prevention and treatment. Doctors should ask patients about it in the same manner they ask about diet and exercise. ​

“Increasingly, we are recognizing the importance of social connection to health and well-being — not just for older adults but for younger people also,” she told Healthline.

Malani said regular visits from grandkids, whether in person, by phone, or via a screen, can improve connections for older adults while benefiting grandkids, too.

“​This time between grandparents and their grandchildren can look different depending on geography, age of the kids, and the overall health of the grandparents, but it is a very special way for everyone to feel loved and more connected,” she said.

So far, Pingree’s creation has been successful for his children and his in-laws.

“My two older kids use it pretty much every day, and particularly my in-laws use it and are responding every time they get an update,” he said.

It’s a different experience for his parents. He lives in an apartment below them, and his younger brother and three kids live in an apartment above them.

“We have an intergenerational living setup, so that’s served as an inspiration for what we’re trying to recreate in the digital world because my kids do have all these little interactions just by virtue of not being able to avoid my parents, but when you live across the country or world it’s hard to foster those little moments,” he said.

“I’ve become a huge believer in how healthy these strong intergenerational bonds can be, and we wanted to bring that to other families,” he added.