I have been looking for something like this for the past year or so for my elderly mother. Instead (and for the more or less same reasons given in the article) I am going to try to custom role a handset for a smart phone that is:

- connects to a smartphone so all the phones features are available.

- an lcd text display

- two buttons to scroll threw a contact list

- a button to call/hang up

- maybe in the future a button or two to read text.

The physical buttons are important to me (her) so she can easily make calls to the people she talks to. If anyone wants to steal the idea, please do. I might buy one.

Adding: Just some sort of DIY/Maker tool chain, for a bluetooh handset, would be useful.

It’s still not useful.

I don’t think I know anyone in my life who solely communicates over SMS and carrier phone calls. I currently do less than 10% of my communication through SMS.

If they ever figure out how to add WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc, they’ll greatly increase the number of people who would be willing to try it.

I'd need some sort of chat, and a weather/radar app.