All guides

For families and caregivers

You have a parent, a grandparent or a friend on DrBell, and you want to know they are taking what they were given. The site opens on that answer, today's doses, and everything else sits in a row of tabs underneath the name.

care.drbell.app — in a browser, on any phone or computer. Nothing to install. (The DrBell phone app shows the same records; see For the person taking medicines.)


Getting started

From nothing to knowing today's doses, in a few minutes:

  1. Ask to be invited. The person, whoever set up their reminders, or

their care home adds your mobile number under Who looks after them. (Nobody to invite you, because they have no phone or you run their medicines? See Setting up a record on the website.)

  1. Open the link they send you, or go to

care.drbell.app.

  1. Sign in with that same number: Continue with your phone number,

Send me a code, type the six-digit code, Sign in. The same button creates your account.

  1. Read the invitation at the top of the page: who asked, for whom, as

what, what you will be told and how. Untick any way of being told you do not want.

  1. Approve. Their name appears in the row at the top, and Today

opens on their doses.

  1. Choose how you are told, any time, under How I'm told at the top

of the page (see Being told).

  1. Want alerts on your phone too? Install the DrBell app and sign in with

the same number.

On the Free plan you see everything but are not told about doses; see Being told and Plans for families.


Getting access

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Signing in

Sign in with your mobile number (Continue with your phone number). The same button creates your account. Continue with your email, and Google or Apple, are there too when DrBell has them switched on — but invitations are sent to a mobile number, so add yours under Your account if you signed in another way.

Signing in does not give you access to anybody. Somebody has to invite you — the person themselves, whoever set up their reminders, or the care home if they are in one — using your mobile number.

When you sign in with that number, the invitation is waiting at the top of the page: "[name] asks you to help look after [person]", from whom, as Caregiver, Guardian or Viewer, and what that lets you do. On a paid plan it lists what you will be told about (a dose missed, late, or taken) and how (App notification, WhatsApp from DrBell, SMS from DrBell, Email from DrBell) — untick any you do not want. It names their plan and the day the invitation ends (7 days after it was sent). Press Approve, or Reject if it is not for you. Nothing is shared until you approve.

Only approve if you know the person. DrBell never asks you to approve anything on a phone call.

Opened the link from a message? The link shows the invitation even before you sign in, with Sign in with … to answer. Signed in with a different number, it says which number it was sent to and offers to sign out.

If you sign in and see Welcome to DrBell with no invitation on it, nobody has invited this number yet — ask whoever meant to invite you to check the number they used. Under I'm helping someone else the page says what to ask them; and if the person has no phone, or you run their medicines, Set up someone's reminders makes their record here, with you looking after it.

An invitation for the person themselves — "[name] set up DrBell for you" — can be approved here or in the DrBell app; either way, their reminders then come to their own phone once they sign in there.

If you give the medicines by hand, the family can ask for the reminders to ring on your phone as well: "[name] asks for [person]'s reminders to ring on your phone", with Accept or Decline.

Looking after your own medicines too? Set up my own reminders on the same site (or + Set up my own reminders in the row of names). Your own record then comes first, as You. The reminders themselves ring in the DrBell app on your phone — see Using the website.

Setting up a record on the website

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For somebody with no phone of their own, or whose medicines you run:

  1. On Welcome to DrBell, choose I'm helping someone else, then **Set

up someone's reminders**.

  1. Read the notices, if they are shown, and agree.
  2. Their reminders: their name, the language their reminders speak,

their time zone (where they live, not where you are), how the screen looks (Large and simple, Standard or For a child), and their meal times. Start reminders.

  1. "Reminders are set up for [name]". Add a medicine (see Medicines),

or Later.

  1. Install the DrBell app on the phone that should ring — yours, until

they have their own. Until a phone has signed in, Today says "No phone is ringing these reminders yet."

The record is yours: you are its owner, it is on your plan, and you are told when they miss a dose (on Plus or Family). When they get a phone, invite their number as Their own phone under Who looks after them.

How many records you can set up depends on your plan: 2 on Free, 3 on Plus, 6 on Family. At the limit, DrBell says "Your plan already looks after as many people as it includes."


Today

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Today

At the top, the answer: how many of today's doses have been taken, and what the next one is.

Underneath, today, in order. Each dose shows the medicine, the time it was due, and what happened — taken, skipped, missed, or still to come. Times are shown in their timezone, not yours, and it says so under their name. If you are in Dubai and she is in Hyderabad, "8am" means her 8am.

If you look after more than one person, their names run along the top: press one to switch. Your own record, if you have one, comes first, as You. If they live in a care home, the home's logo and name are shown under theirs.

A card about [name]'s phone says whether it can ring reminders, when it last checked in, and whether DrBell heard back from it. If it cannot ring, it says so: ask them to open DrBell, which shows them what to turn back on.

Mark taken records a dose they took but did not tap. Skipped… records one they decided not to take, with the reason if you know it (felt unwell, none left, the doctor said so, another reason); it shows as "Skipped: none left", and nobody is told it was missed. When they skip a medicine marked critical themselves, you get a notification saying so (on Plus, Family and care-home plans). I'll handle it, on a dose that is due and not taken, tells the others looking after them that you are dealing with it, so they stop being nudged about that dose; it says "Someone is handling this" once somebody has. It does not record the dose, and a dose that is still not taken when its window closes is still reported as missed.

Move this time…, on a dose that has not rung yet, moves just that dose to a later time today: half an hour to three hours after its usual time (an hour at most for a medicine marked critical). Their phone rings at the new time instead, and you are only told if the new time passes without an answer. It shows "moved from 8:30 pm"; Move this time… again offers Back to the usual time. Tomorrow rings as usual.

For a child's record, if you are their guardian: a dose the child says they took waits for a grown-up to confirm, and those are listed at the top with Confirm.

Under the list, Last 30 days counts each medicine's taken, missed and skipped doses, and History and what to show the doctor opens the report. The page refreshes by itself every two minutes.


Medicines

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Medicines

Each medicine, with the doctor's own shorthand exactly as written (it is never translated or reworded), how it is taken, and how many are left.

What follows is for a guardian (and the person, or whoever set the record up). A caregiver reads the list.

Counting the strip? Type the number and press That's how many. Bought a new strip? Type how many it holds and press Add a new strip. DrBell replies with roughly how many days that lasts.

Each medicine says Until its last day, or No end date. When their doctor changes how long to take it, a guardian presses The doctor changed how long…, picks the new last day (included; today at the earliest) or No end, can note what the doctor said, and saves. Future reminders are rebuilt; what was recorded is kept, and the change is logged with who made it.

Pause… holds a medicine for a while — in hospital, travelling, or the doctor said to hold it — for 3, 7 or 14 days from today, or until someone resumes it. No reminders on those days, and nobody is told a dose was missed. It shows PAUSED with the last day and why; Resume now brings the reminders back at once.

Stop… ends the reminders for a medicine — for them and for everyone looking after them. Only do it when their doctor has said to; what was already recorded is kept.

+ Add a medicine (for guardians): the name exactly as printed on the packet, and the shorthand from the prescription — 1-0-1, BD, TDS, SOS, Q6H, A/F, x 7d. Press Read it, and DrBell says what it understood in a sentence; read that sentence against the prescription before pressing Add this medicine. You can add a photo of the strip (shown on the reminder) and of the prescription (kept under Prescriptions, never shown on a reminder). A course "for 7 days" reminds for exactly seven days, today included, on their calendar.

Say what kind it is — tablet, syrup, drops, an inhaler — and a dose is counted the right way ("5 ml", "2 puffs"). Which days? covers what the shorthand cannot: only some weekdays, every other day, every few days, or some days on and then a break. A course that steps down — 1-1-1 x 3d then 1-0-1 x 3d — is read back step by step with each step's dates. Tick Critical for a medicine where a late dose matters.

Measurements

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When DrBell has measurements switched on, the Measurements tab holds what the doctor asked them to measure and write down — a blood pressure before breakfast, a sugar after dinner.

it is measured in, and when, by their own meal times. Save this measurement. Their phone reminds them at those times.

Today when it is due: the number (for blood pressure, the top and the bottom number) and a note if you like.

spreadsheet** gives the doctor a file.

DrBell keeps the numbers as typed and never says what they mean.

Daily routine

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The Routine tab is Daily routine from the phone: the times every reminder is timed from.

follows that meal moves with it. Meals out of the usual order ask first, with Save anyway.

+ Add a time, Save, Delete.

+ Link a medicine ties one to that time (before, with or after it); Unlink takes it off. DrBell says what changes ("Dolo 650 will be taken 3 times a day instead of 2") before saving; it applies from today.

Everybody who can see the record reads it. Only a guardian, the person, or whoever set the record up can change it; for everyone else the page says "Only someone who manages [name]'s medicines can change this."


Appointments

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Appointments

Upcoming appointments, and the past ones folded underneath. Add an appointment with what it is (in your own words — DrBell does not name tests or doctors for you), the date, and optionally the time, the doctor and where. On Plus, Family and care-home plans, reminders go out the day before and on the morning; on the Free plan the appointment is kept but no reminder is sent, because Free sends no notifications. Afterwards, mark it Went, or Cancel… one that is not happening.


Who looks after them

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Who looks after them

Everyone who can see their record — invited, or watching — and what each of them can do. If nobody would be told about a missed dose, it says so first.

To add someone (Add someone who can help), enter their mobile number with the country code and choose what they may do:

medicines

there

Tick Gives the medicines by hand for a caregiver or guardian whose phone should ring the reminders too. Send invitation, then Send them the link — Copy link, WhatsApp or SMS — so they can open it.

How many people can be invited to one record depends on its plan: 1 on Free, 5 on Plus, 10 on Family. An invitation not yet accepted counts.

Remove takes someone's access away straight away. For somebody in a care home, the home's staff are told about missed doses as well — whoever is on shift for them first.

Only the person, a guardian, or whoever set up the record can invite or remove people; everyone else reads the list. On your own record, set up by somebody else, Take my record over makes it yours and your own plan applies.


Being told

Only on Plus, Family and care-home plans. On the Free plan you can see the person's medicines and each dose, but you are not told about them — the invitation and How I'm told both say so. Your choices are kept for when the family moves to a paid plan. Free is the alarm: it rings on the person's own phone, and DrBell sends nobody a notification.

You do not have to keep this page open. DrBell tells you:

one is always on: it is why you were asked to help

30, and every time it is skipped or put off

taken** — if you choose those

How I'm told, at the top of the page, sets this for each person you help: which ways (App notification, WhatsApp from DrBell, SMS from DrBell, Email from DrBell — only what their plan includes), what about (A dose is late, A dose is taken), and Quiet hours, when late and taken alerts wait until morning; a missed dose still comes through. Save. Stop helping [name] ends your access; their family sees that you stopped. DrBell does not phone anybody: there are no voice calls on any plan.

Looking after a child (a record set to For a child), you are also asked to confirm each dose the child reports — "Aarav reported taking … Tap to confirm." It starts on; turn it off for yourself under How I'm told → Aarav reports a dose.

Only looking after others, your phone is not asked to ring: the DrBell app asks for its reminder permissions only once it has to ring for somebody. It still needs notifications allowed for these alerts to reach it — the app's red Needs you card says so if they are off.

If several people are being told, any one of you can say "I'll handle it" — on the notification in the phone app, or on Today here — and the others stop being nudged about that dose. Four worried people ringing one 74-year-old at once is its own harm.


Progress and history

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Progress shows each medicine's last seven days and the month as a calendar: filled when every dose of a day was answered, half when some were, an outline when none were, and the month's counts — "This month: 52 taken, 2 skipped, 3 missed, of 57 due so far". It describes; it never scores.

History is the longer view, and the report for the doctor (see Showing the doctor). Pick 30, 90 or 180 days. On the Free plan only the last 30 days are kept for reading, and the page says so ("This plan keeps 30, so that is what is shown"); Plus and Family keep everything. Download full record saves the chosen period as a file; Statement opens the record's statement.

Both tabs are for caregivers and guardians; a viewer does not see them.

Showing the doctor

History

History, or History and what to show the doctor under today's list.

Pick 30, 90 or 180 days. The headline is the percentage taken, but the part worth reading is underneath it: for each medicine, how the doses fall across morning, afternoon, evening and night. "82%" tells a doctor very little. "Every miss is the night dose" tells them to ask whether she is asleep by then, and that is the conversation the report exists to start.

Create a link to the last 90 days (or 30, or 180) makes a page a doctor can open without a DrBell account — because they will not make one during a ten-minute appointment. It is copied to your clipboard, and:

Links need Plus or Family. On Free the site says "Sending a link to a doctor is part of the Plus plan. You can still download the report."

The page says plainly that it records what was marked in the app, not what was swallowed, and offers no interpretation. If a period holds more history than one report can carry, it says so rather than quietly showing you a smaller number.

Print works too, for an appointment where paper is easier.

The statement

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A statement is everything that happened, in order, and nothing in it can be changed afterwards: each dose, a meal time moved and by whom, a caregiver added, a medicine stopped.

account.

Each opens on the last month. Earlier goes back a month at a time, as far as the plan keeps (30 days on Free). Print or save as PDF, or Download as a spreadsheet (CSV).

Record settings

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The Settings tab holds the record's own details:

date of birth, and an address read by whoever comes to help in an emergency. Save details.

translated.

It changes their own phone, not yours.

their phone** if it changes hands.

record at once and for good; you type the name to confirm.

A caregiver or viewer sees the settings greyed out, with "Only someone who manages [name]'s medicines can change this."

What you can and cannot do

What you see depends on what you were invited as. A viewer sees what is due — Today, Routine, Who looks after them and Settings — and nothing else; a caregiver also sees the medicines, measurements, appointments, progress and history, marks doses taken and can say "I'll handle it"; a guardian can also add or stop a medicine, keep its count, add appointments and invite or remove people. Buttons you cannot use are not shown, and settings you cannot change are greyed out.

Routine and Settings show their meal times, their other times of the day, the medicines taken at each, their language, time zone and how their screen looks. A caregiver or viewer reads them; a guardian (or the person, or whoever set the record up) can change them, exactly as in the phone's Daily routine — the meal times, and which meal a medicine is taken with. Nobody can change a dose from here: how much, and what, come from a doctor, by way of whoever entered them.

DrBell gives no medical advice, and never will. If something looks wrong, that is a conversation with their doctor or their care home — not a change to make here.


Plans for families

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A plan belongs to the account that set a record up: the people you help are on their own family's plan, not yours. Your plan matters for the records you set up, and for how many phones you sign in.

FreePlusFamily
Medicines and alarmsunlimitedunlimitedunlimited
Records you can set up236
People invited to each record1510
Phones signed in2510
Caregivers told about dosesnoyesyes
Push alerts, email reminders, refill and appointment noticesno (the alarm on the phone rings)yesyes
Diet remindersno (kept, not ringing)yesyes
History30 daysallall
Link for the doctornoyesyes

No plan includes phone calls. A care home's residents are on the home's own plan, which tells families as Plus does.

Your plan, at the top of the page, shows the plan, where it came from (Google Play, the App Store, this website, a gift from DrBell, a care home), when it renews or ends, what it includes, and where to manage it.

Buying on the website. See plans and prices opens care.drbell.app/plans:

  1. Sign in (each button says Sign in to choose until you do). Your name

and a small menu are at the top right: Your plan, Invoices, Back to DrBell, Dark mode and Sign out. The page is light unless you choose Dark mode, and it remembers.

  1. In the Billing address card, choose the country. In India you pay in

rupees through Razorpay; elsewhere through Stripe, in your currency where DrBell has a price. The page says who sells it; prices include tax. If paying on the website is not open for your country yet, the page says so and nothing can be bought there. In India, also choose the state: it decides how the GST on your invoice is shown (CGST and SGST in Telangana, IGST in any other state; the amount you pay is the same). It is asked before you can pay.

  1. Choose Monthly or Yearly (the page says how much yearly saves). Each

plan card shows its price, what it includes, and any offer. In India, pick how you will pay on the large tiles: UPI AutoPay or Credit or debit card. Then Choose DrBell Plus (or Family) and pay.

  1. "Payment confirmed", then Setting up your plan… for a few seconds, and

Your plan appears: the plan and Active, the next payment with its date and amount, how you pay, and the most one payment may be (the limit you also see in your bank or UPI app). Your invoices are listed under Invoices (View / download), and the payment service emails a receipt. Dates are in your own timezone.

If you cancel. Cancel plan asks you to confirm, and then says Your access ends on [date]: nothing more is taken and you keep the plan to that date, then the free plan. If a payment fails, Your plan says so (Payment being retried, On hold or Paused) and what to do; every reminder keeps working.

A code for a lower first price. Once you are signed in, a Have a code? box above the plans takes an offer code, such as the one in an advert. Type it and press Apply. If the offer is on, the plan shows the usual price crossed out and the offer price, for example "₹99 for the first month, then ₹199, renewing every month until you cancel." You pay ₹99 the first time and ₹199 each month after: nothing else to do, and nothing to remember to switch back. You hold one offer at a time, and an offer is for people who have not paid DrBell before. If the offer has ended, was used, or has no lower price in your currency, the plan keeps the usual price and says so, and nothing is charged at a price you were not shown. Under the plan, No thanks, show the regular price lets you choose the usual price instead. Your invoice for the first month shows the plan price, the offer taken off, and what you paid, with the tax included in that amount. The offer works the same whether you pay by UPI AutoPay or by card.

You can also buy in the DrBell app — through Google Play on Android, the App Store on iPhone. One plan per person: if you already have one anywhere, the website shows it and where it is managed instead of selling another.

Renewing and cancelling. A plan renews by itself every month or year until you cancel. For a plan bought on the website you get an email about a day before every payment saying how much and when, and how to stop it (nothing to do if you want to keep it). Bought on the website: Cancel plan on care.drbell.app/plans — you keep it until the end of the period you paid for ("Cancelled: you keep it until [date], then the free plan"). Bought in the app: cancel in the App Store (Settings → your name → Subscriptions) or Google Play (Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions).

A payment that fails does not stop anything: the plan carries on while the card is tried again, and Your plan says "The last payment did not go through. Nothing has stopped — every reminder still works while it is sorted out."

When a plan ends, nothing is deleted and nobody is removed. Reminders keep ringing on the person's phone; caregivers stop being told about doses, push, email, refill and appointment notices stop, diet reminders are kept but stop ringing, no more people can be added than Free allows, and only the last 30 days of history are shown.

Refunds. Apple and Google refund what was bought through them. For a plan bought on the website, write to hello@drbell.app: a full refund within 7 days of the first payment; after that, the unused whole months of a yearly plan; and always if a fault on our side stopped reminders. A refund gets a credit note under Invoices. The terms are at drbell.app/legal/refunds.

A gift of some money back. Now and then DrBell returns part of a payment as a gesture, for example at a festival. You get an email in DrBell's own words saying how much, and a receipt under Invoices (it says "Refund receipt"). The money goes back to the card, UPI account or bank you paid with and usually arrives in 5 to 7 working days; your plan carries on as normal and you do not need to do anything. A refund of a mistake, a duplicate or a cancellation is a credit note instead. If a refund has not arrived after ten working days, write to hello@drbell.app with the date and amount.


Signing out

Sign out is in the top right. Use it on a shared or borrowed device: this page shows a named person's medication history, and the session lasts ninety days.


Your account

Your account

Your account, in the top right of every console (in the left rail on admin), is where you set:

Until you set one, screens show the number, because that is genuinely all DrBell knows about you.

translated.

back. It does not change anybody's reminders, or the times you see: a resident's 8am tablet stays at their 8am, on their clock.

It also lists where you are signed in, with Sign out everywhere else; Download everything DrBell holds about you; and Delete my account. Deleting changes nothing for 30 days — reminders keep ringing and caregivers keep being told — then the account, the records you own and every photograph are erased for good. Keep my account cancels it in those 30 days.

Adding an email address

Optional, and it does not replace your mobile number — it adds a second way in, for people who would rather use email. Enter the address, and a six-digit code confirms it. Signed up with email? Mobile number adds a number the same way, and invitations travel by number. You can remove either one, but never the last way you have to sign in.

The code arrives by email within a minute, from DrBell. Not there? Check spam, then ask for a new code. If the email service is ever down, the screen says plainly that no code was sent, rather than leaving you refreshing an empty inbox.

Passkeys

On care.drbell.app, once DrBell has turned passkeys on, Your account → How you sign in → Passkeys lets you sign in with this computer's or phone's own fingerprint, face or screen lock instead of waiting for a code. It is an extra way in: the account is still made with a code, and a code still works, and is how you get back in if you lose the device.

the device asks for your fingerprint, face or screen lock. The list shows each passkey with when it was added and last used, and Remove.

"or use a code" under it. Clicking the phone or email box can also offer the passkey straight from your browser.

We keep only the passkey's public key, its name and two dates.

remove it. The same passkey works on the DrBell phone app from its next version.

How DrBell works, and telling us what to improve

When you first set up Someone I look after in the app, a few cards show how it works: their phone rings, not yours (or yours rings for them if they have no phone); you are told when a dose is late or missed; invite them, or choose your phone under Ring on; and their statement shows what happened. Read them again in the app under Profile → Help and legal → How DrBell works.

In the app, Profile → Help and legal → Rate DrBell asks whether you like DrBell — Yes opens your app store's rating card, Not really lets you say what to do better — and Tell us what to improve goes straight to a message to the DrBell team. On the website it is Send feedback, at the top of the page. Please do not write about anybody's medicines or health.

On Plus, Family and organisation plans a person answers your email about using DrBell; on Free, the help centre and the questions and answers. On every plan you can email hello@drbell.app about your account, your privacy or a complaint.

For referral partners

A pharmacy, clinic or nurse who recommends DrBell can be a referral partner. Since 11 November 2026 DrBell's partner programme is run by Thaja Growth, the referral programme DrBell's company runs for all its apps. Partners sign in at partners.thaja.org (the old care.drbell.app/partners address now goes there): your DrBell link and code with a QR, what your link brought (taps, sign-ups, paying subscribers), your commission on hold, approved and paid, your statement, and sub-partners. A printable sheet for the counter is at drbell.app/print/pharmacy with your code.

Your link is still drbell.app/r/ and your code. Someone with DrBell installed opens it straight into the app; someone without it lands on thaja.org/drbell/ and your code, which offers the store. They enter your code when DrBell asks "Did someone recommend DrBell?" (on Android it comes with the install). You never see their name or their medicines.

Questions

I was invited but see nothing. An invitation must be approved before it grants anything. Sign in with the number you were invited on: the invitation appears at the top of the page. If it does not, the invitation went to a different number, or it ended (after 7 days) — ask for a new one.

She says she took it and the screen says missed. The screen records what was tapped, not what happened. While the dose is still open, Mark taken records it; once it has been marked missed, it stays that way, because the record is what the doctor is shown — unless she corrects it herself with I took it on her phone, and then everyone told it was missed is told it was taken after all.

Why am I not told when she misses a dose? Her record is on the Free plan (Free is the alarm: it rings on her phone and DrBell tells nobody), or you are a viewer, or you have not approved the invitation yet. How I'm told says which.

Can I see last month? Today is the default. History goes back 30, 90 or 180 days on Plus and Family, and 30 days on Free. Download full record on History saves it; whoever owns the record can also download everything under Your account.

Will she know I am watching? Yes. Access is granted deliberately and is visible to her, and every read of her record is logged.

Will DrBell phone me when she misses a dose? No. DrBell tells you in the app, and by WhatsApp, SMS or email where her plan includes them. No plan makes phone calls.