Why Medmento - Our Design Philosophy

Our philosophy

The thinking behind Medmento

Medmento grew out of an earlier app, Medmonitor, built together with Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelsen, Norway's national public health association. We made it alongside families living with illness, people with dementia, and the people caring for them.

That work shaped what we included — and what we deliberately left out. Here's the thinking behind those choices.

No streaks

Lots of habit apps lean on streaks — a counter of consecutive days you don't want to break. Duolingo does it, fitness trackers do it, meditation apps do it. In a narrow sense it works: it keeps people coming back.

We chose to leave that mechanic out. The psychology is well known: once a 47-day streak is on the line, missing a day feels like losing something you own, not just skipping one. That pull is fine in a language app, where skipping a day changes nothing real. Skip a dose and something might. The streak calls "streak broken" the bad outcome, when what matters is a missed dose.

Streaks also reward the wrong people. They pat the back of whoever is already consistent, while the people who most need help — irregular routines, memory problems, depression, chaotic schedules — get handed another reason to feel bad about themselves. That isn't motivation; it's another small shame spiral.

They come from the growth playbook, not clinical thinking — they spread because they lift engagement numbers, which a company watches, not outcomes a patient lives with. And the research leans the same way: guilt-based mechanics tend to wear engagement down over time^1,2, because people stop opening the app rather than face the "you failed" framing. That's the opposite of what a medication reminder should do.

Supporting carers, not replacing them

A lot of medication apps include a "carer dashboard" — a screen where a family member or nurse logs in to check whether someone took their medicine. It sounds helpful. The people we spoke to about these apps told us otherwise.

For someone still living independently, taking their own medication is part of that independence. It's a small daily ritual, and it says: this part of my life is still mine. A dashboard that lets another person check up on it changes that dynamic, even with the best intentions. The person being watched starts to feel watched, and the routine stops feeling like theirs.

Remote dashboards can also give a false sense of security — the information in them is only as dependable as the app collecting it, and when health is on the line that's a risk you don't take casually. A daughter's phone call, a neighbour stopping by, a pharmacist asking how things are going: those are the things that keep people connected, and no dashboard sits in for any of them.

So Medmento has no remote monitoring, on purpose. It's there to support the person using it, not to manage them. Helping someone stay independent for longer is itself a kind of care for the people who love them.

Really free

"Free" stretches a long way in software. Many apps are free to install and then quietly cap how many medications you can add, or move the features you need behind a subscription. Others dangle a free trial that runs out just as you're starting to rely on the thing.

Medmento is free, and there's no catch: no cap, no hidden tier. Every feature is available the moment you open the app. Medication adherence shouldn't be something you pay extra for, and someone living with a chronic condition shouldn't have to weigh whether a feature is "worth it" when that feature is what keeps them well.

Your data is nobody's business

This is health data, not shopping habits. It's what medication you take, when you take it, and how consistently. In the wrong hands that kind of list can affect your insurance, your job, your privacy, in ways you can't fully predict.

With most apps, that data lives on company servers, in a database next to thousands of other people's. Those servers might sit in a country you've never visited, under legal frameworks you never agreed to. The privacy policy is usually written densely enough that none of this is obvious. Somewhere, your medication list is in a place you can't see and didn't choose.

In Medmento, your medication list stays on your own device, encrypted with AES 256-bit. We never ask who you are, and we never see your data. It's nobody's business but yours — not a slogan, just how the thing is built.

Memory games

Medmento has memory games you can play right after confirming your medication. The idea is to give you a small reason to open the app regularly, and to use that moment for something that can support your cognitive health while you're at it.

For people in the early to moderate stages of a condition that affects memory, regular cognitive exercise may help hold on to function. The games are there when you want them — never required, never tracked in a way that leaves you feeling bad. Just part of the daily routine of taking your medication.

When is Medmento right for you?

Medmento was designed for a particular stretch of life: a person still living at home, running their own routines, making their own decisions, but at a point where a dependable tool for reminders, cognitive engagement, and health tracking can be the difference between staying independent and giving that up.

It isn't for everyone. If you don't take medication, you probably don't need it. If you need hands-on daily care, you may need something more. But there are a lot of people in between, and for them a tool that supports their health without crowding their independence is exactly the thing that matters.

If you're weighing options — ours or anyone else's — our guide to choosing a medication reminder app walks through the questions that actually matter.

Medmento fits here

Timeline showing where Medmento fits in the progression from healthy to full care

That's who we built Medmento for: people who want to keep living their normal life as long as possible, with a tool that helps them do it — no guilt, no surveillance.

Available for iOS and Android