Six things people find in Marlow weeks after they start

Nothing in Marlow announces itself. There’s no tour and no tips that pop up, which is right for the parent’s side and mostly right for yours, but it means some of the most useful parts get found in week three rather than on day one. These are the six, with how to get to each.

The widget and the lock screen on your parent’s phone

The screen inside the app is the one you set up and look at together. The same information, the next thing, when to be ready and who’s coming, can also sit on her home screen as a widget, so she doesn’t have to find an icon or open anything.

The widget is the one thing on her side that has to be added by hand, and it’s an iPhone step rather than a Marlow one. Press and hold an empty spot on her home screen until the icons start to wiggle. Tap the plus sign or Edit in the corner, look for Marlow in the list, pick a size, and add it. Do it while you still have her phone in your hand, because it’s the surface a lot of parents end up using most and the one they can’t set up themselves.

The lock screen needs no setup. From the moment a ride is taken until she’s home, a card sits on her lock screen saying who’s driving and when to be ready. It says nothing about the appointment itself, on purpose, because a lock screen is public. That card is for the person sitting in a clinic lobby wondering if anyone is coming.

Two more things on her screen that nobody tells you about. There’s a weather line under the greeting, and a note on the day’s card if it’s raining or cold enough to need a coat. And if her wifi drops, the screen keeps the last good copy of today, with a line saying how old it is, rather than showing her an empty day.

The ride back is its own ride

An appointment can have a ride there and a ride back, and they’re taken separately. People find this late because they’ve been writing “both ways” in the notes and doing both legs themselves.

When you add the appointment, say it needs a ride back as well. The second leg appears with its own needs-a-driver marker. The person who does the morning drop doesn’t have to be the person who does the two o’clock pickup, and for the long ones, an infusion or a day surgery, they almost never should be. Repeating appointments and round trips goes through the patterns families settle into.

A repeating appointment can have a standing driver

Dialysis three times a week is not a hundred and fifty appointments to type. It’s one, marked as repeating. Physical therapy every Tuesday and Thursday is one entry. If one week moves because the clinic called, you move that week and only that week moves.

The part people find even later is the standing driver. If your brother does every Tuesday, put him on the series when you set it up. Every Tuesday then opens with his name already on it, and nobody in the circle gets asked about a ride that was settled in March. He can still hand back a single week if something comes up, and that one week goes back to needing a driver, where everyone can see it.

Taking a ride is the commitment, and it lands in your calendar

There’s no confirm step. When you tap to take a ride, that’s it: it turns green with your name on it, everyone in the circle sees it, and your parent’s screen says you’re coming. Nobody is going to ask you to accept it. Nobody is going to remind you to confirm.

Some people expect a second step and hesitate, because in most apps a tap is a suggestion and the real answer comes later. In Marlow the tap is the answer. If you’re not sure you can do it, don’t take it yet. If you took it and something has come up, open the ride and tell Marlow you can’t make it. It goes straight back to needing a driver, where everyone can see it, and the circle hears that it’s open again.

The other half of this: a ride you take is written into your own calendar, Google, Apple or Outlook, and Marlow warns you if it clashes with something already there. It only goes one way. Nothing from your calendar flows into Marlow, so the family schedule still lives in the app.

Her medicines, with a reminder she can tap

This one surprises people because Marlow is mostly about rides. Add her medicines from your side and when they’re due. Her phone reminds her, and she taps once to say she’s taken them. That’s the whole of what’s asked of her, and it’s the only thing on her side that ever asks her anything.

On the Plus plan you can also see what was taken and when, and hear about it if a dose was missed. It’s a record, not a medical device, and nothing about her health should depend on a phone buzzing. But for a family that has been doing “did you take your pills?” by phone every morning, it’s the feature they mention first.

“Being arranged” is what your parent sees

When a ride hasn’t been taken yet, your side shows it orange and marked as needing a driver, and the circle gets a nudge as the date gets closer. Your parent’s screen shows none of that. It says the ride is being arranged. That’s true, and it isn’t her problem to solve.

People discover this by holding the two phones side by side and being briefly worried that the parent’s is out of date. It isn’t. It’s showing her the only version that’s useful to her: there’s an appointment, here’s when to be ready, and someone will come. The senior side page shows the screen, and why the senior screen has no buttons is the longer version if you want it.

If you set Marlow up in a hurry, the two to go back for are the widget and the standing driver. Ten minutes for both, and they’re the ten minutes that stop the app needing you every Tuesday.