AARPEldercare

Setting up Lanturne

Lanturne comes as two apps: one on your phone, and one on the watch worn by the person you look after. Installing it on your phone does not put it on the watch. Sit down with the watch in your hand, take your time, and work through these steps. You only need to do this once.

What you need first

A Wear OS watch

A Samsung Galaxy Watch, a Pixel Watch, or another Wear OS watch. We suggest the Galaxy Watch 7 in the larger size, with LTE if you can; refurbished ones start at $139. A Wear OS watch already on the wrist works too. Fitbit trackers, Garmin watches, Apple Watches and watches that do not say Wear OS cannot run Lanturne.

A phone in the home

An Android phone to take the watch through its own first-time setup, usually the wearer’s own. It does not need Lanturne on it. If the wearer carries it, it also keeps the watch online away from home.

Your Android phone

The phone that runs Lanturne and gets the alerts. Lanturne does not run on an iPhone or an Apple Watch today.

Nine steps, start to finish

PLAY STORE INSTALL 1 Install it on your phone from Google Play, then make an account SUBSCRIBE $120 a year $30 a month 7 DAYS FREE 2 Tell us who wears the watch a name, and how to refer to them THEIR NAME Margaret they · them 3 Start the 7-day free trial covers you, the wearer and one contact now pick up the watch PLAY STORE INSTALL 4 Install it on the watch same listing, nothing extra to pay READ ALOUD 418 302 5 It shows six digits, and says them if it runs out, a new one appears ENTER CODE 4 1 8 3 PAIR WATCH 6 Type them into your phone then tap Pair watch take the digits to your phone CHECK-IN 9:00 AM Alerts on do not skip this 7 Choose the check-in time then turn on alerts, so they can reach you 8 Allow six settings with the watch in your hand 9 Add the watch face optional, puts Help on the face
Follow the arrows. The two amber arrows show when you switch devices: pick up the watch after step 3, and take the six digits back to your phone at step 6. The last arrow is dashed because the watch face is optional.

Step 9: get the Lanturne watch face on Google Play. You can install it from the watch or from your phone. Then press and hold the watch’s current face, and choose Lanturne.

Step 8: the six settings

Location

Settings → Location → On

This is the watch’s own location switch. It is separate from the permission you give Lanturne, and it is the one people miss most often. With it on, an alert about a HELP press or a fall shows you on a map where the watch is. If it is off, alerts still arrive, but without a position, and nothing on the alert tells you one is missing.

Location for Lanturne

Settings → Apps → App list → Lanturne → Permissions → Location → Allow

Choose “Allow all the time” if the watch offers it, so an alert about a fall can carry a position even while Lanturne is closed. If it is off, alerts arrive without a position.

Heart rate

Open Lanturne on the watch → Allow → Allow all the time

You can also find it under Settings → Apps → App list → Lanturne → Permissions. Some watches call it Sensors or Body sensors. If it is off, or allowed only while the app is open, the watch cannot send a pulse, and you may get an alert about a missing pulse when nothing is wrong.

Notifications

Settings → Apps → App list → Lanturne → Notifications → Allow

This is how the daily check-in reaches the person you look after. If it is off, the check-in never appears, so it cannot be answered, and you get a missed check-in alert for a question that was never shown.

Physical activity

Settings → Apps → App list → Lanturne → Permissions → Physical activity → Allow

This lets Lanturne hear about a fall the watch has detected. If it is off, falls are not detected. The HELP button still works.

Background activity

Samsung: Galaxy Wearable app on the paired phone → Watch settings → Battery → Background usage limits → Never sleeping apps → add Lanturne
Other watches: Settings → Apps → App list → Lanturne → Battery → Unrestricted

The wording varies: look for “Unrestricted”, “Don’t optimize” or “Allow background activity”. If you see “Pause app activity if unused” for Lanturne, turn it off. If it is off, the watch can hold Lanturne back while it is idle, usually overnight, so reports arrive hours late or not at all.

Checking your work

STATUS

On your phone, open Lanturne and go to the Status tab. Give it about half an hour after you finish. Last seen shows how recently the watch reported.

If a setting on the watch is off, a card headed “One thing needs attention on the watch” names it. When there is no card, every setting Lanturne checks is fine, and you are done.

If Last seen still says “Never” after an hour, the watch is not getting online. Check that it is on Wi-Fi, has mobile signal, or is near the phone it was set up with.

If you get stuck

The Play Store on the watch cannot find Lanturne
Searching on a watch does not always work. On a phone signed in to the same Google account as the watch, open the Lanturne listing in Google Play and choose the watch from the list of devices next to Install.
Lanturne was already installed on the watch another way
Uninstall it from the watch first, then install it from the Play Store. The Play Store does not replace an app it did not install, and it shows no error when that happens.
The code ran out before you typed it
That is perfectly fine. The watch shows a new code on its own. Type the new one.
The watch does not say the code out loud
Right after installing, the watch’s voice can take a moment to start. The digits on the screen are the same six, so you can read them instead.