Pro Tip: The five phones on this list are useless without a cellular provider. To learn which ones offer cellular service from $10 per month, check out our rundown of the best phone plans for seniors.
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View PackagesFor the uninitiated, smartphones present steep learning curves. These days, however, most smartphones feature voice commands that make it easier than ever to operate your phone. Even some flip phones now have these features.
With a voice-activated phone, you can make calls, dictate text messages, and access other features of your phone solely by using your voice. The following five phones were hand-selected by our experts as the best options for seniors.
Pro Tip: The five phones on this list are useless without a cellular provider. To learn which ones offer cellular service from $10 per month, check out our rundown of the best phone plans for seniors.
Simply put, a voice-activated phone is one that has features a person can utilize through voice commands. These features might include:
A voice-activated phone can help seniors (or users of any age) use their smartphones more conveniently.
In composing this list, we’ve evaluated over 30 different cell phones. Here’s what we looked for when creating our rankings:
Apple’s iPhones are widely known for their built-in voice assistant Siri, with which you can play music, look up information online, and check your voicemail. What many people don’t know is that iPhones also contain a Voice Control mode.
Once Voice Control is on, which you can toggle through the iPhone’s accessibility settings, you can accomplish the following tasks:
The number of voice commands is nearly infinite, so much so that you can even ask your iPhone SE to “show voice commands” to provide a comprehensive list.
Beyond voice controls, the iPhone SE has great call quality, a good 12mp camera, and 5G compatibility. Touch ID also simplifies your security and functionality.
The iPhone SE is available for $429.99 through major networks like T-Mobile and Verizon.
The Jitterbug Flip2 is a fantastic budget pick for seniors looking for maximum accessibility in an old-fashioned package. For $74.99, you get a traditional flip phone design with modern functions like a Medical alert system, complete with an urgent response team and on-call nurses, and Amazon Alexa integration.
When Alexa is active, you can use the phone’s many voice-activated functions such as calling, texting, checking the weather, managing your calendar, and browsing the news, all with your voice. The sound is clear, the buttons are big, and the screen is bright for a flip phone.
In terms of downsides, the Jitterbug Flip2 comes with overage fees on its Verizon-only plan, a hidden activation fee, and a lack of a shared plan. But for budget picks in voice-activated phones, the Jitterbug is hard to beat.
To learn more about this phone, read our full Jitterbug Flip review.
The Moto G7 Play is the best Android phone we reviewed for accessible voice command functions and overall ease of use. As a bonus, it sports a budget price of $99.99. You can use the Moto G voice commands to write emails and texts, call your contact list, change your settings, set alarms, and more using Google Assistant.
The battery life is great, running in tests for around 15 to 16 hours, and the design is stylish. Unfortunately, the camera isn’t the best, and the performance specs won’t stack up if you plan on playing games on it. But in this price range, a smartphone design with convenient voice-activated features and a modern design are hard to come by.
When purchased from Consumer Cellular, this phone is also eligible for Consumer Cellular’s discounted plans for seniors. To learn more about these plans, read our Consumer Cellular review.
The iPhone 14 Pro is a top-of-the-line smartphone with a beautiful screen, a fantastic camera, and the best performance in any phone under $1,000. The phone even has features like a proprietary safety service via Apple’s Emergency SOS satellite and a Crash Detection program.
Apple’s Voice Control works through Siri to give you control over dictating texts, creating your schedule, running your apps, and more through easy-to-use voice commands.
When you buy Apple, you’re buying brand prestige in a stainless steel package. The one drawback we noticed is that the battery life isn’t as good as previous phones in this price range. But if you or your grandkids like to watch movies and play video games on your phone, you can’t do better under $1,000 than the iPhone 14 Pro.
If you’re looking for a smartphone simplified for newer users, the Jitterbug Smart3 is tailor-made for seniors in many ways. Its screen is bright and big, with large, easy-to-use buttons and a streamlined menu interface that anyone can handle.
Additionally, the phone comes packaged with safety features like a 24/7 urgent response line as well as health and safety packages that you can buy if that has become a priority for you. The phone is affordable, and so are its plans, but it has issues with overage fees. We also thought it took too long to load simple apps and switch pages.
Using voice dialing and setting schedules by command is also easy with the Jitterbug Smart3. You can’t expect top-of-the-line gaming or video performance on this phone, as even its menus load slowly, but its accessibility and safety features should keep it on your list.
To learn more about this phone, read our full Jitterbug Smart3 review.
Most smartphones have Google-assisted or Siri-assisted voice commands that can be used to write text messages, place calls, and browse the web.
Yes, the Jitterbug Flip2 has voice command features such as voice dialing and dictation.
Most voice commands are activated with a key phrase such as “Hey Google” and use other keywords to do specific functions. We made sure to choose phones that are easy to use and learn so that you could take advantage of their useful features.