Rientro Family Guide

Care with greater clarity.

Caring for someone with dementia often means living with uncertainty.

Not knowing if today feels normal.
Not knowing if something has changed.
Not knowing whether you should worry.

Rientro helps reduce that uncertainty by helping families recognize meaningful changes earlier — and respond with greater clarity, confidence, and care.

This guide will help you:

• Understand how Rientro works
• Set up your system correctly
• Know what to expect during alerts
• Respond confidently during emergencies

Part 1 — Start Here

What is Rientro?

Rientro is not just a GPS tracker.

It is a care intelligence system designed to help families detect wandering risk earlier and respond faster during emergencies.

Rather than simply showing a dot on a map, Rientro continuously interprets multiple signals — movement, direction, time of day, behavioral patterns, heart rate — to understand how urgent a situation truly is.

Think of it as a safety system that stays quiet when everything is normal and becomes active only when risk becomes real.

What You Need

Apple Family

Android Family

Why cellular? A WiFi-only watch stops tracking the moment your loved one walks away from home. A watch with its own cellular plan keeps tracking everywhere — at the park, on the bus, in the rain. This is a safety requirement, not a preference.

Try the Free Rescue Drill

Before committing to anything, you can experience a guided rescue drill — at no cost.

The drill simulates a real wandering event and shows how Rientro responds from Safe through Monitor, Concern, Urgent, and Emergency.

No account. No credit card. No commitment.

How to try it:

1. Download Rientro from the App Store or Google Play
2. Tap Continue as Guest — no email or password needed
3. Tap START DRILL — the simulation begins immediately
4. Watch the system respond in real time: each level activates in sequence, the map updates, and at Emergency your phone sounds an alarm
5. Tap MARK AS SAFE to end the drill, then STOP DRILL when finished

Part 2 — Setup Guide

Setup takes about 10–15 minutes. Follow these steps in order.

Step 1: Create Your Account

1. Tap Create Account in the app
2. Enter your email and choose a password
3. Check your email for a verification link and tap it
4. Sign in — you'll see the main dashboard

Step 2: Add Your Loved One's Profile

Go to the INTEL tab and tap Edit Profile.

Fill in what you can:

• Name and photo — helps first responders identify them
• Date of birth and diagnosis
• Blood type, weight, allergies
• Medications — what they take and when
• Memory anchors — places they might wander to (childhood home, favourite café, familiar church)
• Hazardous points — busy roads, bodies of water, railway lines

Step 3: Set the Home Safe Zone

The safe zone is the area around your home where your loved one is considered safe. Rientro only activates when they leave this zone.

1. Tap Home Base in the profile editor
2. Enter your home address or drop a pin on the map
3. Choose a radius: 50 meters for most homes, 100–200 meters for larger properties

Add your home WiFi name (recommended): In the same screen, enter the name of your home WiFi network. This gives the system instant departure detection — the moment the watch disconnects from your home WiFi, Rientro knows they've left, even before GPS catches up. A 60-second grace period handles taking out the trash or checking the mailbox.

Step 4: Add Emergency Contacts

These are the people who will receive alerts if the situation becomes urgent.

1. Tap Emergency Contacts
2. Add 2 to 5 people — a spouse, adult children, neighbors, anyone who could help
3. Enter their phone numbers with country code (e.g., +13305551234)

Step 5: Pair the Watch

1. Install Rientro on your loved one's watch from the watch's app store
2. The watch will display a 6-digit pairing code
3. Enter that code in the phone app when prompted
4. Grant all permissions — especially Always Allow for location and health data

Step 6: Monitor Multiple Family Members (Pro Plan)

On the Pro Plan, you can monitor up to 3 family members under one subscription.

On the MISSION tab, tap the Add a family member banner to create a new profile. Once you have two or more, the banner becomes a switcher — tap any name to change the active patient. Both the map and profile views update instantly.

Part 3 — Daily Use

Most days, Rientro stays completely quiet.

That is exactly what should happen.

When everything is normal, the system monitors silently in the background. You will not hear from it unless something changes.

Your main daily responsibilities are simple:

• Charge the watch every night — GPS tracking drains battery quickly
• Keep the watch on the wrist — the system is most effective when worn consistently

Using TETHER When You're Out Together

When you take your loved one out — to a park, store, or appointment — Rientro is still running. But the home safe zone stays at home, so the app would normally alert you just because you're far away.

TETHER tells Rientro: "I'm with them. Stand down."

It does two things at once:

Stay-close alert. A quiet boundary forms around your loved one's current position — about the width of a living room. If they wander away while you're briefly distracted, your phone buzzes immediately. You don't have to watch them every second.

Silence home-distance alerts. The system stops counting distance from home. No more alerts for being "too far away" when they're standing right next to you.

Real example: You're at a shopping mall. You sit your loved one on a bench outside a store and step inside for two minutes. TETHER is on. If they stand up and start walking, you're alerted before they've gone more than a few steps.

How to use it: Tap TETHER on the main screen. It turns green and shows TETHERED. Tap again to release.

What TETHER never turns off: Fall detection and heart rate monitoring stay active regardless. A medical emergency will always be flagged.

Part 4 — Understanding Alerts

Rientro uses five alert levels.

The system does not react to location alone. It interprets multiple signals together — movement, direction, time of day, behavioral patterns, heart rate — to understand how urgent a situation truly is.

The Five Levels

How the System Reads the Situation

The alert level is calculated from up to 9 signals working together:

• Time elapsed since leaving the safe zone
• Distance from home
• Walking speed and direction
• Time of day
• WiFi connection status (home network disconnected?)
• Whether the watch is on the wrist
• Watch battery level
• Heart rate

A few behaviors worth knowing:

• Nighttime departures escalate faster. A 3 AM departure is treated as more urgent than a 2 PM one — nighttime wandering carries higher risk.
• Direction matters. If your loved one is 500 meters away but walking toward home, the system eases off. Walking away escalates normally.
• Speed detection. Normal walking pace is expected. If the watch detects vehicle-speed movement, the system escalates faster — they may be in a car.
• Watch removal. If the watch is removed and stays off for 5 minutes, the alert rises to Monitor (Level 4).
• Low battery. Below 5%, the alert level is boosted by one to increase urgency before the watch goes offline.

What Triggers Immediate Emergency

Three events jump straight to Level 1 — Emergency, regardless of the current level:

• A fall — the watch detects a hard impact
• An abnormal heart rate — dangerously high or low
• 15 minutes outside the safe zone — the core safety rule

Part 5 — During an Emergency

"She left the house and hasn't come back"

1. The watch disconnects from home WiFi. After 60 seconds, the system activates.
2. Level 5 → Monitor (4): She's outside the safe zone. You get a notification.
3. Monitor → Concern (3): Getting farther, walking away from home. The map shows a shaded search area of where she could be.
4. Concern → Urgent (2): Been gone a while. You receive an urgent alert. If you don't respond, texts go to your emergency contacts.
5. Urgent → Emergency (1): Texts go immediately to your entire contact list with a live tracking link. The watch sounds a siren.

"He fell in the driveway"

1. The watch detects the impact
2. Instantly goes to Emergency (Level 1)
3. Your phone sounds a loud alarm — even if it's on silent
4. Texts go to everyone on your emergency list
5. The watch plays an SOS siren so anyone nearby can hear

"She took the watch off"

1. The watch detects removal and sends you an immediate notification
2. If it stays off for 5 minutes, the alert rises to Monitor (Level 4)
3. The watch transmits its last known location — so you have a position even if she leaves without it

"The watch lost signal"

1. You receive a message: "Signal lost. Last known location: [address]"
2. The watch keeps recording GPS data internally
3. When signal returns, all stored data uploads automatically

The Rescue Map

When an alert is active, the map becomes your rescue dashboard:

• Red dot — your loved one's current location, updated continuously
• Green circle — the home safe zone boundary (the gap shows how far they've wandered)
• Shaded area (Level 3 and above) — everywhere they could have walked, calculated from real roads and sidewalks
• Orange markers — hazardous points you saved: roads, water, railways
• Blue markers — memory anchors: places they're likely to head

Part 6 — Advanced Tools

These tools help families understand patterns over time.

Mission History

A complete record of every alert, drill, and wandering event.

Tap HISTORY on the mission screen to see summary statistics — total events, average distance, peak alert level, and a risk trend indicator (IMPROVING / STABLE / WORSENING). Below that, a list of every past incident with date, time, peak level, distance, and how it was resolved.

Tap any incident to see the full GPS trail and escalation timeline.

Heatmap

Shows where wandering events cluster. Larger circles mean more incidents; warmer colors mean higher severity.

Tap HEATMAP on the mission screen. Use it to identify recurring routes and danger areas, then add those locations as Hazardous Points or Memory Anchors in the profile.

Memory Anchors

Places your loved one is likely to head during a wandering event — a childhood home, former workplace, familiar place of worship. Saved anchors appear on the rescue map so family and responders know where to look first.

Hazard Points

Dangerous locations near the home — a busy intersection, body of water, railway line. These appear on the rescue map to guide search priorities.

Part 7 — Keeping Rientro Ready

Once set up, Rientro runs automatically. Like any safety system, it needs occasional attention:

Part 8 — Pricing

The app is free to download. The rescue drill is always free — no account required.

To activate real-time protection:

The plans include everything:

• 24/7 GPS tracking on the watch
• All 5 alert levels with automatic escalation
• Text alerts to your emergency contacts
• Fall detection and watch siren
• Search area maps
• Unlimited drills

Part 9 — Common Questions

Can I use a WiFi-only watch?
No. A WiFi-only watch stops tracking the moment your loved one leaves home. The watch needs its own cellular plan.

Does this work at night?
Yes — and it responds faster at night. The system knows nighttime wandering carries higher risk. A departure between 10 PM and 6 AM escalates nearly twice as fast as a daytime one.

What if I get a false alarm?
The system is built to avoid them. It uses averaged GPS readings and gradual escalation. A brief boundary crossing won't cascade into an emergency. If your loved one is in the garden and the alert reaches Monitor (Level 4), it will resolve when they come back inside.

Can multiple family members get alerts?
Yes. Add up to 5 emergency contacts. Everyone receives texts simultaneously — at Urgent (Level 2) if you don't respond, and immediately at Emergency (Level 1). You can also broadcast manually: press and hold Broadcast Alert for 3 seconds, then tap Share Link to send a live tracking link through any messaging app.

Can I monitor from another city?
Yes. The app works over the internet. You see the same map, alerts, and live location whether you're next door or on another continent.

My parent lives in a care facility — is this still useful?
Absolutely. Set the safe zone to the facility's grounds. If your loved one exits the building or wanders off the property, the system activates the same way.

What if they need a second safe zone?
The app supports multiple safe zones. Add a secondary location — a day care centre, a relative's house — from the profile editor under Home Base.

The drill says "DRILL" — is that different from real alerts?
Yes. All drill events are clearly labeled so you can distinguish practice from real alerts. The drill runs the complete simulation, including the alarm and command screen, so you know exactly what to expect.

Rientro is designed to help families carry less uncertainty.

Preserving dignity remains at the center of everything we build.

For help: support@rientro.care

Document Version: 6.0 | Last Updated: June 2026