Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Jitterbug Smart4 is a wonderful phone for those who want smartphone features but are not technologically savvy. It's got large, easy to options on the home screen with simple drill downs, large print, and many functions that can be done using voice. A good option for senior use, especially if vision impaired.

I think my 89 year old mom will finally be willing to ditch her flip phone for the Jitterbug Smart 4. The interface is easy and pretty intuitive. BUT. It took tech skills to set it up. There was supposed to be a card in the user guide that told me how to activate a Lively account. I never saw it and had to call Lively. Once they told me the website to activate, I moved on to the next glitch. The voicemail setup kept spinning, giving an error message and then going right back to spinning. The only way to exit was to reboot. Finally, once I got past the google signon, the keyboard came up blank in every app. I thought maybe I corrupted somethig when I rebooted, so I reset to factory settings and set it up again. Still no keyboard. Ugh. Found a suggestion online to update the keyboard app. I’m an IOS girl, and the keyboard is inherent. Who knew? So I go to Google Play and guess what. You can’t search without a keyboard. Voice search wasn’t even working. I finally found a place where I could click on update app from the phone, and it updated and fixed the problem. So, it migjt be a simple phone to use, but it a non-techie elderly person could never have set it up! My mom will love the 178 page guidebook, but the pages are falling out, like the glue is crumbling. The guy I talked to at Lively said they will send me another one.

Nice phone. Pretty easy to use. I got it for my husband who has beginning stages of dementia. All he needed is for was to call out for me to call him. The phone seems to be easier than the TracFone that we had. The only thing I don’t like is that it takes 4 steps to make a phone call. The battery life is very good. It will go a week on one charge if you’re just making phone calls. I’m hoping that this will be the last phone we have to purchase for a while.

easy to use I am 88 years young. Although the Jitterbug Smart4 is only compatible with Lively’s plans, this cellular provider offered everything I’d need in terms of coverage.

The large letters and numbers are such a good help to me and I am enjoying the phone .

Super easy to use exactly what my 96-year-old mother needed

My mother is 80 and has brain damage and mobility issues from a stroke, and this phone is a life saver! It has enough smart phone capabilities to let her participate in the modern tech world, but the interface is easy enough to use that she can actually do it. It has good battery life, a bright large screen and a pretty decent camera considering the very low price. The Lively phone service is excellent as well, and they have great customer support. This is an excellent phone for somebody who needs a simplified phone!

Bought this for my mother-in-law who was getting overwhelmed with her Android phone. Interface is more straightforward -- the list approach for apps is easier for her to deal with than the multiple screens of icons on her old phone. Sound quality is excellent. Not surprisingly, we needed to spend a fair amount of time getting her accustomed to the new interface, but she's caught on pretty easily. Only reason I can't give 5 stars is a couple of design challenges: 1) she holds her phone with her left hand wrapped around the back, which puts her fingers right on the volume controls. More than once she has inadvertently turned the volume down to the point she can't hear us. We wound up putting duct tape over the toggle controls as a reminder to not grip the phone so tightly. 2) She likes to turn her phone off when she's not using it (even though we've told her it's not necessary -- it's the old dog, new tricks thing). When she turns it back on, her fat fingers tend to hit the Airplane mode button instead of the On button and you guessed it -- no phone, no text, no email and she was convinced the phone was broke. I point out these issues only as a warning that you may need to invest a good deal of training before the phone is user-friendly. On the plus side, Lively's customer support has been excellent, so all-in-all this was a good purchase. Camera seems adequate although she doesn't use it.

Bought this for my 80 year old father. Its very easy for him to use. The screen is a nice size. The menu is in bigger print making it easier to see and the volumn is loud enough that he can hear it ring as his hearing isn't so good. The only thing is the Emergency Call button tends to get in his way or attract his attention. There is a delay if you press it and it gives you a 10 second countdown before actually going through and gives you the chance to cancel. Other than that no issues at all. It was easy to set up and the customer service people were very nice and patient.

I finally convinced my wife to switch from a flip phone to a smart phone, after showing her the features on this Jitterbug Smart4. She is almost 70 and is a bit technically challenged. However, once I showed her how much better the camera is and how much easier texting is compared to the flip phone, she agreed to try this. My wife has been using this phone for a year now and loves it. I still have to show her how to do certain things at times but the basic functions she is completely comfortable with. Once I added her contacts, she has no problems making calls or texting. Getting her voice mail is no problem at all. She loves the ease of the camera and the ability to send the pictures she took to others or to her desktop computer. Those are the main functions she uses so there was no need for me to get her an upgraded data plan. The basic one is more than enough. And how about the plan price? I still cannot believe how low the monthly charges are. As soon as we got the phone, I got her a snap on case for it, which has kept the phone in like new condition. For anyone looking for a phone that makes the functions of a flip phone so much easier, along with the ability to do some smart phone functions, I highly recommend this Jitterbug Smart4 smartphone.

easy to use love the battery little charge needed right size for my hand love the listing provided so that i do not need to search where calls and emails are located. nice ring and volumn adjustments provided. My first phone is a hit! Camera works really well

The screen is larger, type is smaller, camera is much better than previous Jitterbug phone. I did go through the User Guide to learn correct usage of each command. Didn't want to wing it on anything. After day two it started to click and readily added needed apps. I use the phone for everything, calling, texting, internet sites, news, social media. This screen has a sharper picture than previous Jitterbug and I am pleased with the improvements in this model. Jitterbug is definitely senior citizen friendly.

Easy to set up. Very user friendly for people that are not as familiar with using a smart phone. My grandma appreciated the large icons and the menu and navigation system was simple enough for her to learn, having only had a flip phone in the past. Sometimes freezes or runs slow but can be fixed by turning the phone off for a few minutes.

I bought this for my 80-year-old grandmother who has wanted a smartphone forever but is terrible with technology. It's so easy to use, there are multiple ways to get to everything from the home screen, it's extremely affordable, and the font/buttons are huge and clearly labeled. Unfortunately, Grandma did not like it because "This isn't an iPhone" but I'm hoping she'll warm up to it because there is no reality in which she would ever be able to use any smartphone aside from the Jitterbug.

Excellent for seniors who find smartphone too complicated or more than their lifestyle requires. Nice, clear layout. Good speaker. Found Lively to be the least expensive carrier in out area and disconnected from a major provider.

I am 85, deaf but still trying to keep up with technology as much as I can. I have had flip phones in the past because they were compact, and did all that I needed at the time. Now I need voice texting, larger letters, gadgets easier to understand. Although I am still learning how to use some of it, I have found Jitterbug 4 has all that I need.

I wanted to wait until my mom had used for a while. I can easily give this phone 5 ⭐️. Now keep in mind, this is not for tech savvy people. It was not designed to be similar to an iPhone either. What it is, however, is a perfect “smart” phone for my elderly mom. The last one that I purchased (different brand) was far too complicated for her and after months of our family members trying to teach her how to use it, we gave up and bought her a flip phone made by this same company. That was a fabulous phone, but at 3 years, it was tired and the flip wasn’t really flipping anymore. After doing some research, I decided on this model. It was very easy for me to transfer her number over and to set up her new phone. I am extremely impressed with how easy they did make this model. Teaching my mom how to use it was fairly easy as well. She likes to text and now with an actual “keyboard” it’s much easier. She also has the ability to use the speak-to-text option, which works fairly well. Overall, she likes that phone and no longer has issues with hearing the ringer, making/receiving calls or texting. She’s even learning to do a basic Google search! Thank you for making a phone that is truly easy to use for those folks who were not raised with technology.

Bought the phone for my dad who is 93. Seems easier for him to use. Did not activate phone with the default Lively service as he did not need all the extra services (their help I've fallen... call for a Lift cab ...) plus extra data usage becomes roaming charges. Bought a SIM card (99 cents) from Tracfone which has plans that will not go over on data. With the Tracfone activation there is a red image at top as the Auto911 Lively service is not available or similar message like that - have to just inore that. Jitterbug could not or would not assist in resolving that red warning bar. They want you to use their service.

I bought this for my 91 year old father-in-law to upgrade from his existing Jitterbug Smart3. Lively overlays the standard Android interface with their own interface. You can get back to the Android interface if needed (I find it easier to use the stock Android interface to do phone set up tasks. My father-in-law is perfectly content to use the Lively interface for everyday use). We took the new phone and his existing Smart3 to Best Buy to have them switch servicve between the phones. That was the extent of the support they were able/willing to provide. As it turns out, we would probably have done better to just call Lively to switch between the phones. The support person (Geek Squad) at Best Buy pulled the SIM from the old phone and transferred it to the new phone (which is admittedly probably what I would have done). I had backed up his old phone via the standard Google interface before going to Best Buy and restored to the new phone (again using the standard Google interface for both) after the support person had switched the SIMs. After we finished the new phone seemed to work fine. However, after we left the store, my father-in-law began having trouble making the phone work the way he wanted it. We called Lively and were told that we should not have switched the SIM form the old phone to the new one. We were instructed to remove the old SIM and return it to his Smart3 and reinsert the SIM that came with his Smart4. We were then advised to turn off both phones and wait about 60 minutes. After we did that, it seems that everything worked fine with the new phone. So, be careful when upgrading to call Lively and not merely switch SIMs between the phone you are upgrading and the Smart4. One really good thing about the Smart4 is that Android Auto seems to work much better than with the Smart3. I had not been able to get Android Auto to work when my father-in-law's Smart3 was linked via Bluetooth to his car. However, as soon as I linked the Smart4 via Bluetooth to his car, I was immediately prompted to set up Android Auto and my father-in-law now has Google Maps working properly in his car. If you are going to use Lively as your phone carrier, I highly recommend using the Smart4 as your phone of choice.

Great little smartphone for seniors who are not too familiar with tech. Easy to navigate. Screen size isn’t too small and the sound quality of the phone is very good.