Why not just use Alexa for this
A smart speaker is built to hear a command and forget it; ElliQ, about $249 plus roughly $59 a month, is a companion that starts conversations. The MemoriesBox pendant, $79 at the early price and shipping 2027, is a recorder the person wears, feeding an archive that keeps their voice.
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It is a fair question
There is probably already a smart speaker in the kitchen. It has a microphone, it is always on, and it cost less than the MemoriesBox pendant, which is $79 at the early price and ships in 2027. Why not ask it to record?
Because it is built to do the opposite of what you want. That is not a criticism of the speaker; it is what a speaker is for.
What a smart speaker is for
A smart speaker listens for a wake word, sends the few seconds after it to a server, acts on the command, and keeps as little as the law and the company's policy allow. It is designed to forget. You cannot ask it to record an hour of somebody talking about the war, and if you could, the recording would sit in a cloud account under terms written for shopping lists, in a jurisdiction you did not choose, in a format you cannot easily get out.
Nor does it hear the person. It hears the room. A voice that has gone quiet, four metres from a cylinder on the counter, comes back as a transcript full of gaps.
ElliQ, which is the serious version of this
ElliQ, from Intuition Robotics, is a companion robot for older people who live alone. It starts conversations, remembers what you told it, suggests a walk, and reminds you about pills. It costs about $249 for the device plus roughly $59 a month, checked on the company's own site on 17 August 2026. For loneliness, it is a real product, and there is evidence behind it that we do not have.
What it is not is an archive. ElliQ's job is the person's day today. Nothing it hears is meant to be a record for their grandchildren, kept in their voice, in fifty years. It is company. The pendant is memory. A family can want both, and they are not in competition.
Side by side
| Smart speaker | ElliQ | MemoriesBox pendant + archive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built to | Hear a command and forget it | Keep an older person company | Record the person and keep it for good |
| Starts a conversation | No | Yes | No. The person presses |
| Where it hears from | The counter | The table | The collarbone |
| Keeps the recordings for the family | No | No | Yes, at full quality, in the EU |
| Keeps the voice as a model | No | No | Yes, when the person asks |
| Family can ask it about the person's life later | No | No | The storyteller can today; heirs in the next version |
| Price | From about $50 | ~$249 + ~$59/month | $79 (later $169) + $139/year for the archive |
| Available | Now | Now | 2027 |
The difference is what exists in ten years
Everything a smart speaker hears is gone by next week, by design. Everything ElliQ hears is used to be a better companion tomorrow, by design. Everything the pendant records is kept — as audio, at the sample rate it was said at, with a transcript, in a chapter, in the European Union, exportable by you at any time — because keeping it is the entire design. In ten years the speaker will have been replaced twice. The recording of your father explaining how to graft an apple tree will open in any audio player on earth. See /trust/export.
What it costs and when it ships
$79 one-time at the early price, rising to $169. Ships in 2027. Full refund at any time before it ships. The archive is a separate subscription at $139 a year, and the pendant works as a recorder without it. See /device/preorder.
Until then
If the person lives alone and the problem is the silence, ElliQ is a real answer and we would rather you knew it existed. If the problem is that the stories are going, the MemoriesBox app records them today, into the same archive the pendant will feed. Start there.
Questions people ask
Can I use Alexa or Google Home to record my parent's life story?
Not usefully. A smart speaker is built to hear a short command and forget it, hears the room rather than the person, and keeps whatever it does keep in a cloud account under terms written for shopping lists. It is the wrong tool, not a bad one.
Is the MemoriesBox device a companion robot like ElliQ?
No. ElliQ starts conversations and keeps an older person company, for about $249 plus roughly $59 a month. The MemoriesBox pendant records when the person presses it and feeds an archive that keeps their voice for their family. They do different jobs, and a family can want both.
Does the MemoriesBox device talk back?
No. It is a recorder with one button and no speaker. The conversation with the person's digital self happens in the app, once a voice has been built from their recordings.
Why is the pendant worn instead of placed on a table?
Because a microphone on a table hears the room, and a voice that has gone quiet does not carry across one. Worn at the collarbone, the pendant is a hand's width from the mouth.
Related: The device · A pendant on the person, or a phone that rings · The device or a voice recorder · A voice you can talk to any time · The full comparison table
MemoriesBox is $139 a year, hosted in the EU, first 14 days free, cancel anytime. Start here.