HMD has put an AI companion inside a flip phone. The HMD 2660 Flip Senior Edition ships with Mary, a voice companion from the senior care company inTouch, and it went on sale on October 21 in the UK and France as what the announcement calls a "limited-edition trial."
The announcement stresses what the phone leaves out: "No complicated apps. No confusing screens." The user opens a familiar clamshell phone, picks Mary, and talks.
What the phone is
The hardware is a basic feature phone built for older adults. HMD's product page lists a big screen, big buttons, a long-lasting battery and a flip design where you "open to answer, close to hang up." The UK store listing gives 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of storage.
Yanko Design reports that the hardware is close to the regular HMD 2660 Flip from 2025: a 2.8-inch inner screen above a large keypad, a small outer display, a removable 1,450mAh battery, USB-C charging and an IP54 rating for dust and splashes. HMD's page confirms the IP54 rating.
According to inTouch's launch announcement, HMD first showed the phone at MWC Barcelona in March 2026 as the first in a series of phones meant to help older adults age at home.
What Mary does
Mary is a voice AI made by inTouch, a Prague company founded in 2023. inTouch describes itself as "the AI voice operating platform for senior care," and says Mary already makes companion calls, check-ins and care reminders for older adults in English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Italian and Spanish.
On the phone, inTouch and HMD say Mary can:
- hold everyday conversations at any hour of the day
- answer questions and "help recall important information"
- talk about history and nature, share stories and play memory games
- remember earlier conversations, so later chats can build on them
HMD says Mary "speaks at a slower pace, allows time to respond, and keeps conversations simple yet meaningful." inTouch CEO Vassili le Moigne said in the announcement that Mary has held 16,000 conversations since inTouch launched her, and that what surprises the company most is how much older adults want to share their family stories and memories.
How you start a conversation
The setup is split between the family and the user. Someone scans a QR code or visits the web address on a card in the box to activate the service. inTouch's HMD partnership page calls this "a 2-minute setup at intouch.family/activate." After that, HMD says there are no apps to download and no passwords to remember.
The two companies describe the way in slightly differently. inTouch's announcement talks about "one press of the Mary button." HMD's FAQ says to select the Mary icon from the main menu, then press the call button. The partnership page lists both: the dedicated button, or "Call Mary" in the menu followed by the green call button. Either way, a conversation with Mary works like a phone call.
What it costs
The phone costs £79.99 in the UK and €79.90 in France, per the announcement. Each user gets 5 hours of free conversation with Mary. After that, Mary needs an inTouch subscription at £16.90 per month in the UK or €19.90 per month in France. HMD notes that operator charges may also apply.
HMD's FAQ says inTouch emails the registered address when the trial nears its end, and that "there are no automatic charges; you only pay if you decide to continue." If the family does not subscribe, the phone keeps working as a normal flip phone without Mary. Yanko Design adds one caution: the trial does not roll into a paid plan on its own, but inTouch's general terms say paid subscriptions renew automatically.
Privacy and limits
inTouch says conversations are encrypted and stored in the EU, in line with GDPR and UK GDPR, and that personal data is not sold or used for advertising. It also says plainly: "Mary is a companion, not an emergency service." That line matters for a phone aimed at people who may live alone. Families should not treat Mary as a way to call for help.
Neither company has published evidence in these materials that Mary reduces loneliness. The announcement makes the case with statistics on how many older people live alone (one in three people aged 65 and over in France, per INSEE, and more than four million in the UK, per the ONS), but those figures describe the problem, not the result. Yanko Design makes the same point: Mary's availability "shouldn't be confused with evidence that she reduces loneliness."
Why it matters
inTouch pitches the phone as a way to reach Mary through something older adults already know: making a phone call. Its partnership page sums it up as "One button. No app." Other recent AI companions take different forms, such as HTC's egg-sized VIVEE gadget and the Tolan companion app.
It also adds a monthly subscription to a £79.99 phone. At £16.90 a month, five months of Mary (£84.50) costs more than the phone itself. For families weighing it, the practical questions are whether the person actually wants to talk to an AI, who manages the subscription, and how they feel about a company storing those conversations.
For now it is a limited trial in two countries. HMD and inTouch have not said in these materials whether it will expand to other markets.
