Pill Master

Reminding you to take your medication.

The Pill Master app is one of the most advanced app's of it's kind on the planet, utilising cloud technology this app can communicate and interact with you using Amazon Alexa devices and Wear OS watches!   You can get medication reminders on Android devices and smart watches and you can ask Alexa to show you today's dose's or tell you what pills you need to take, what pills you have taken and Alexa can even interact with your device to turn off alerts and add or change any medications. 

You don't need an Alexa device to use this app, it has so many great features that will help keep track of your pills.

With this app you can also get pill alerts on a Wear OS smart watch.

Pill Master will always alert you when any pills need to be taken by displaying a flashing button which is accompanied by the sound of pills being shaken for tablets or liquid splashing for liquid medication.

The app will also notify you when your pills are running low on any medication and inform you that it's time to get a repeat prescription.

Alexa and Wear OS interaction is only available in the full version of Pill Master (Echo) which can be purchased or rewarded in the dashboard.

Basic Concept

The Pill Master app has a huge amount of functionality but the basic concept is very simple you initially setup the earliest and latest alert times (when you take your first & last pills) in the dashboard, then specify how you take each medication for example one tablet twice a day in the medication screen and the app will workout the times you need to take your pills.

Navigation

To navigate in the app there is a navigation bar at the bottom with three main screens.

Screens

The complete list of screens.

1.  Home (welcome screen)

2.  Dashboard (app settings)

3.  Notifications (list of prescriptions)

4.  Medication/Dose Change (prescription/dose information)

5.  Dose History (list of doses)

6.  Statistical Chart (breakdown of doses)

7.  Barcode Scanner (scan prescription barcodes/QR codes)

For more information about each screen click on the screen in the menu (top of page) or scroll down the page to find it's details.

Buttons

There are just two buttons that float above each screen these are used to save or locate information within the app.

These buttons can be re-positioned by simply holding down a button then dragging it, and reset to their original positions in the dashboard.

Home screen

The home screen is the first screen to appear after the Pill Master app loads, the main menu is displayed at the bottom and in the full version when the app is linked to Alexa this screen shows an image of Alexa's Pill Master skill, this image can be pressed to allow you to setup the Pill Master skill in the Alexa app or web app, to setup skill correctly you just need to grant notification and email permissions.

Reasons why skill needs these permissions:

1.  Notification permission allow echo devices to notify you when your running out of pills. (Echo devices will notify you after use them to tell Pill Master you have taken pills they will not notify you if you use your mobile or watch to stop alerts.)

2. Email permission is so Pill Master knows it's you that it's talking to. 

The navigation menu at the bottom of the screen is used to navigate through the app, a quick way to load a specific prescription if you have a lot of them is just scan it's bar code.

Pressing the floating add button (+) on the home screen will open the medication screen with a new prescription.

Dashboard screen

In the dashboard screen you can setup system defaults

Amazon Link/Unlink

In the full version this link button will enable/disable a link to your Alexa account so you can interact with any Alexa device that has the Pill Master skill enabled (see Pill Master (Skill) section below),

The Alert Audio switch is a new feature that allows you to set the alerts volume to automatically increase until it reaches the maximum volume then resets the volume and starts again, this prevents an alert startling you and so you can hear alerts even if the device is set to silent or vibrate only.

Dark Mode

This switch can be used to set the app to either night or day mode. 

Full Version

To upgrade to the full version just switch this on the app, a quick test will be preformed before you purchase the app to make sure the device your using is capable of communication with Alexa.  If it cannot you will still be able to buy and use the app without the Alexa functionality.

Alexa may not be availably in certain countries yet,  if you cannot connect to Alexa you will be able to leave us some information that will help us to see if we can't get you connected. 

Default earliest/latest doses

These clocks set the default earliest and latest dose times, these times are used if you take more than one of the same pill a day.  You can also change any prescription's earliest dose in the Medication screen. (see Medication & Dose change section below).

These times are used to calculate the interval between each dose for pills that are taken more than once a day changing these will effect the interval between each dose.

Alexa can also change these times. (see Alexa phrases list

Rewards

Pill coins are the latest feature of Pill Master (Echo),  the pill coins are worth $0.01 and can only be used to purchase the full version at the moment. 

Pill coins are rewarded to users in the dashboard for simply watching a video.

Pressing the floating add button (+) on the dashboard screen will save the apps settings.

Notification screen

In notifications screen there is a list of prescriptions where you can delete a prescription or reset the notification by swiping it from list.

Pressing on a prescription will open it in the medication screen, each prescription also has an alert switch that will enable or disable pill alerts for that prescription, and the dose history icon on the top right opens the dose history for that prescription. (see dose history & statistics chart section below for more information) 

If you take different medications at the same time you can change the order in which the alerts appear by dragging the medication up and down this list.

Each prescription in the list will show if the medication is taken as either a solid or a liquid by displaying one of the icons shown below.

Pressing the floating add button (+) on the notification screen will open the medication screen with a new prescription.

Switching alerts ON/OFF

Switched ON alerts are active and pending and the alert time is shown at the bottom of the prescription.

Switched OFF alerts are deactivated and no alerts will appear.

(If you ask Alexa for your next medication you will need to have at least one alert pending in your list of prescriptions).

Milligram (mg) solid tablets/capsules. these pill alerts have a bottle of pills shaking sound effect.

Millilitre (ml) liquid medication/capsules, these pill alerts have a liquid sound effect. 

Swiping medication left or right

Swiping a medication to the left or right will remove it, there is a "NOT TAKEN" option that will only clear the dose history and restart the prescription.  You will have to confirm these actions as neither can be undone.

Medication & Dose change screens

In the medication screen you enter the prescription details like the medication name, the dose amount and whether its taken as a solid in milligrams(mg) or as a liquid in millilitres(ml) (or toggle between mg/ml by pressing the pills/capsules that appears directly beneath the medication image).  and quantity of pills in the prescription, in the full version Pill Master can access to camera so you can click on add image and the barcode to add these.

Below this you enter the prescription's dose information which is used to calculate the interval between doses, on the screen it says take ONE1 tablet twice2 a day3,  the words marked here with 1, 2 or 3 can be pressed on to open a list of values to select from.

1 is the amount of pills in a dose (options range from HALF to TWELVE pills). 

2 is the occurrence of a dose within a period, (options range from once to twelve times (12x) in a period).

3 is the period the dose's occur (options range from hour to month). 

In the dose change screen this prescription's dose information and the dose time are the only information you change.

In the full version you can switch to a custom dose which allows you to specify your own values.

(Technical information about how dose intervals are calculated daily, a day is defined by the time difference between the earliest and latest alert times setup in the dashboard, for example if earliest alert is set to eight am and latest to eight pm this will be a twelve hour day,  a dose that occurs twice a day will start at eight am and next dose will be twelve hours later at eight pm or a dose that occurs three times a day will have a six hour period so first dose will be at eight am, second dose will be six hours later at two pm and last dose six hours after that at eight pm. so by changing the earliest and latest times in the dashboard you can change the daily dose interval). 

The 'Pills' field beneath the custom switch is the amount of pills you have remaining in the prescription, this is used to calculate when to send either the 'Out of pills' notification or the 'Repeat prescription' notification the value in the 'Represcription Remind at' field also has to be greater than zero before any notifications are sent.

The date and time on this screen sets the date and the time the medication will start daily, any medication that has to be taken more than once a day will start at this time each day, which defaults to the time set in the dashboard.

In the full version of Pill Master you can press on either the image or the bar code on this screen to capture the image of the medication or scan the prescription's bar code or QR code.

Pressing the floating add button (+) on the medication screen will save the prescription information.

Pill Alerts

When a pill alert triggers the alert screen appears on your device even if your device is sleeping, locked or has been rebooted and even if the app isn't running (except force stopping the app), Pill Master will always remind you to take your pills.

Pressing the 'BIG SHINY BUTTON' on the alert screen will tell Pill Master you have taken the medication or you can get Alexa to press the button for you by telling her that you have taken pills.  

Pressing the snooze button or asking Alexa to snooze alert will snooze the alert for five minutes.

Pressing the skip button or asking Alexa to skip alert will skip this dose. (Alexa can also skip any dose you specify same as you can in the dose history).

Pill alerts will automatically stop when you have no more pills left or you can disable them manually in the medication and notification screens, alternatively you could just ask Alexa to disable them for you.

If a device is switched on after being switched off for a long period of time Pill Master will notify you if any pills have been missed during that time, the notification will have a 'pills taken' button at the bottom which will inform Pill Master that you have been taking pills whilst device was off, otherwise you can dismiss the notification,  please note that a notification is automatically dismissed if cleared, or clicked on without pressing any buttons.

Other notifications similar to the missed alerts are the 'Repeat prescription' and the 'Out of pills' notifications these will only appear when the repeat prescription level is set above zero and the pills remaining is less than that level or you have run out of pills on these notifications a button will asked if a new prescription has been picked up.

A notification may need to be expanded to see the buttons you will need to press the small down arrow next to the title to (see any diagram below).

Pill alerts will continue to activate until either the alert is switched off in either the notification or medication screen's or until the amount of pills remaining reaches zero.

Test alerts

Test alerts are triggered in your Pill Master (Echo) & (Wear) apps by Alexa when you say "Alexa, ask Pill Master to show me alert", they mimic real alerts but don't do anything so you can use them to test everything is setup correctly.  You could also use test alerts to locate your device if you cannot find it and need information from your app.

Doses are recorded every time an alert activates when you either press the big flashing button to take dose or skip button to skip the dose and missed doses are recorded automatically.

Taken, skipped or missed doses can be changed in the dose history screen which will be explained later. 

Alexa can also skip and change dose's in the future, see the list of Alexa phrases further down this page for further information on what Alexa can do.

Skipped doses will appear with a yellow warning sign, a missed dose will appear with a red stop sign and if a dose's time has been changed it appears with a blue clock sign. 

The doses may also appear in different colours these are as follows 

Green A first dose.

Red A last dose.

Orange Repeat prescription needed.

Blue Dose has been changed.

Purple Repeat prescription needed & dose has been changed.

Ghosted Remaining or future doses, these are semi-translucent and can be any of the above doses.

Dose history screen

The dose history screen can be accessed via the notification screen, on each notification there is a green history icon located at the top right, by pressing this you will see the dose history where you can find what doses you have taken, skipped or missed and the app will calculate when you need to take your remaining doses and show these as ghosted, you can see the entire list of all doses for all the medication you take by enabling all doses at the bottom of screen.

The listed doses will show when dose is due on the top right, this will be either AM or PM if pills are taken twice a day or MORNING, NOON, EVENING or NIGHT for three or four times a day, otherwise the number of dose will show for example 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.

Scroll up and down the list of doses and swipe them to the right or left, swiping a dose the right will toggle it to be either skipped or taken and swiping it to the left will either toggle it from a missed dose to a taken dose or remove any changes made to it, to make changes to the doses they need to be in the future (ghosted) and not already recorded.

Making changes to a dose is the same as entering a new prescription's dose information where you enter the amount of pills, the occurrence of each dose and the period in which these occurrences happen once you save the change the dose will appear in blue.

You can filter out which doses you need to see by setting a filter,  filters are set using the filter bar located at the bottom of the dose history screen it contains a set of predefined filters that you select from the pull down list on bottom left of the screen.

The filter can be refined further by opening the filter bar this can be done by either by selecting a custom filter or by clicking on the filter bar itself to open and close it, once it's opens you will see a set of switches that will enable you to filter out missed, skipped, changed and other doses so only these matching doses appear in the dose history or on a statistics chart.

Only a custom filter will allow you to define your own dates, selecting the "Custom" filter will open the filter bar to enable you to enter the dates.

Alexa can also use these filters if you say "show me" then specify any one of the filters Alexa will open the Pill Master app on your device if it's not already open and show you the doses, include the word "chart" , "graph" or "statistics"  like "show me chart" and you will see the chart instead.

Pressing the floating add button (+) on the dose history screen will open the medication screen with a new prescription.

Swipe Left

Swiping a future dose left will remove any dose change except a time change, otherwise it will toggle it between take and missed.

Statistical chart

The statistical chart can be accessed by pressing on either a first dose (green), a last dose (red) or any dose that has been taken (not ghosted) in the dose history list.

The chart will tell you how well you have been taking your medication, it shows the total completion either of a single prescription or all prescriptions (if you have 'All Doses' selected),  and shows a further brake down of every remaining, taken, skipped and missed dose.

All percentages are based on the current selected filter. 

Pressing the floating add button (+) on the statistical chart screen will open the medication screen with a new prescription.

Pill Master (Skill) - on Alexa devices

Alexa uses this skill to communicate and interact will the Pill Master app, you will need to enabled it first in either the Alexa app or the Alexa web app or on Amazon using your Alexa account.

After enabling the Pill Master skill you will need to link it to your Alexa account and grant both email & notification permissions in the skills settings, if this is not done Alexa will inform you that you need to do this and will send a card to Alexa app to help you.

You must also link the Pill Master (Echo) app, go to the dashboard screen, click link (if this is your first time linking app you will be asked for credentials enter the same email and password as you used to link the skill in your Alexa app), once both Pill Master app & skill are linked you will be able to interact and communicate with Pill Master using your Alexa devices.

You may receive a message saying your registering Alexa on a device not tested by Amazon this is fine as your mobile device does do need Alexa built in, you can use your Echo or another Alexa device to communicate with Pill Master.

In the full version of Pill Master this skill icon appears on the main screen if the app is linked and can be clicked on to change any settings for the skill.

If Alexa is having trouble communicating check Pill Master's notification permission in your device's settings is enabled this allows Pill Master to inform you of any problems.

Pill Master (Skill) - Basic Concept

The Pill Master skill will look at prescriptions or doses so Alexa can read or change the information, Alexa will only change the prescription or dose that the skill is looking at this automatically changes once an alert is triggered, the skill will look at the medication for the current active alert until it's deactivated then the skill it will look at the medication for the next alert, you can ask Alexa to get a medication which will make the skill look at a medication you choose. 

Advice: The Pill Master skill is not available for all countries yet, if you are going to use Alexa with Pill Master you should make sure you can enable the skill first before purchasing the full version, the Pill Master app will remind you to do this and give you the option to enable skill, this option opens Alexa app (if installed) or Alexa web app,  and opens the Pill Master skill so you can enable and setup it up.  Please contact us if you have any issues with this it might be that the skill just needs publishing in your country.

Privacy notice:  The account linking process is used to authorize a link between the Pill Master app and the Pill Master skill, this is secure and recommended by Amazon, the Pill Master app only receives your name and email address from Amazon and only uses your email address to link the Pill Master app. 

if you no longer require the Pill Master service please unlink Pill Master before unistalling app, we assume you still require the Pill Master service if it is linked, unlinking Pill Master will remove any collected information that is on the cloud, as stated in our privacy policy we will only retain collected information for as long as necessary to provide you with your requested service.

Pill Master (Wear) - Main Application

The Pill Master (Wear) is a watch face for Wear OS smart watches, you can link it to the full version of the Pill Master (Echo) app (see linking instructions below) to get pill reminder alerts on your watch.   There are two faces you can choose from a digital face or an analogue face.  When watch faces are linked:

1. The analogue watch face will display when medications are taken, an image of either pills or capsules will appear next to the hour, these images are interactive and if pressed they will show a list of all the medications for that hour.  Once you have taken all the medication for that hour the image will show a green tick next to it. 

2. The digital watch face displays an image of pills in the top left but unlike the analogue face this image will not change, it resembles all medication for that day and it is also interactive and if pressed a list of all the medications for that day will be shown.

Both faces have a digital day of month and the name of the day displayed on them, this date can be changed by swiping the screen horizontally in either direction allowing you to view yesterdays or tomorrows doses or whenever the your last or next doses occur the date change is not permanent it will automatically reset to todays date when watch enters ambient mode (Which is explained later) or you swipe down briefly.

The Pill Master (Wear) is free to use as a watch face only but if you want medication reminders you'll need a full version of the Pill Master (Echo) app which costs £2.99 (ex. VAT).

Once you link your watch a button will appear in the dashboard of your Pill Master (Echo) app, this gives you the ability to link and unlink your watch, so now you'll be able to link and unlink from both your watch and your phone.

When the Pill Master icon has green lights around it you watch is linked if they are red your watch is is unlinked.

Medication list

Medication lists show when you tap on a pill or capsule icon.  An analogue watch face only shows twelve hours per day so both the morning and night time doses appear as one icon on the watch face, tapping this icon will display the full list doses you take for that hour.  A digital watch face only shows one hour of the day so if you need to take any medication for that day a single icon of pills will appear at the top left of the watch face, tapping this icon will display the full list doses for the entire day.  To skip/reinstate any dose swipe it to the left and swiping the screen to the right will close the tile.

Untaken first dose's cannot be skipped, Pill Master will only record a first dose when a pill is taken.

Ambient mode

In this mode the watch is trying to save power so with respect to this Pill Master will also go into a low energy mode showing only the time and day which will reset back to todays date after one minute if it was changed by swiping the screen.

Linking Pill Master (Wear).

The following steps will help guide you through setting up and linking your Wear OS watch to Pill Master (Echo).

Setup steps:

Step 1:

Install the Pill Master (Wear) app directly on your watch.

With Wear OS by Google, your can visit the Play Store on your watch and install the Pill Master app directly to your watch. Additionally, you can install the app using the web-based Play Store.

Step 2:

Make sure you have your watch paired to a handheld device. (You can do this using the Wear OS app by Google).

Set Pill Master as your watch face and press the Pill Master icon on the watch face.

If you have installed the Pill Master (Echo) app on the paired handheld skip to step 4.

Step 3:

If Pill Master (Wear) cannot find the Pill Master (Echo) app on the paired handheld device you will receive to notification telling you that you require the app and will be given the option to install it.  if so press the install button after which you may be asked to chose a app to use for the installation, select the Wear OS and install the app on your handheld device.

Now press the linking button again on your watch and you will get a notification on your handheld device saying you need the full version this notification will have a PURCHASE NOW that enables you to purchase the app through Google.

You may need to expand the notification by pressing a small down arrow next to the title if you cannot see these buttons (See diagram in Pill Alerts section above for more information on expanding notifications).

Once you have the full version installed press the Pill Master icon on your watch again.

Step 4:

Wait for the lights to turn green around the Pill Master icon on your watch be pacient this can take a few seconds and when they do that's it!  Now when you enter, change your pill information on your handheld you will see it appear on your watch. and when you get alerts you will receive them on both your watch and your handheld device.

You can test alerts by saying "Alexa, Ask Pill Master to show me alert". 

(You will need the Pill Master skill enabled on your Amazon Alexa device and your Pill Master (Echo) app is linked to to your Alexa account see Pill Master (Skill) above for more details on linking Alexa to your Pill Master app on your handheld device.) 

Pill Master (Echo) Dashboard linking:

If you have previously linked your watch, you can link and unlink your watch from the dashboard within the Pill Master (Echo) app.

The yellow link button links your watch and the blue linked button will unlink it.

Pill Master (Echo) - Medicine Reminder App

If you are viewing this on a mobile device then you can download our app from either Google Play Store or Amazon App Store by clicking on links below. (Amazon download is the free ad version only you will need to install the app from Google Play Store to upgrade to the full version).

To purchase the full version just go to the dashboard screen and switch to full version then follow Googles secure payment system's instructions).

Full version is currently £2.99 (ex. VAT).

Alternatively you can earn pill coins in the app that can be used to purchase the full version.

The full version of Pill Master has the following capabilities that the basic ad version does not.

1. Alexa can be used to interact with app.

2. Pill Alerts can be sent to a Wear OS watch.

3. Pill images can be captured and stored with pill information.

4. Prescription bar codes (including QR codes) can be scanned to quickly bring up the pill information in the app. 

5. The interval between Pill Alerts can be manually customized.

6. And of course there are no ads.

The Pill Master (Echo) app is covered by Googles play protect, so you can get your money back within two hours of purchase if you are not satisfied.

Pill Master (Wear) - Watch Alert App

The Pill Master (Wear) app is available in Google Play Store click link below.

With Wear OS by Google, your can visit the Play Store on your watch and install the Pill Master (Wear) app directly to your watch. Additionally, you can install the app using the web-based Play Store.

The watch face is free, however if you want it to display pill information and alerts you will also need a full version of the Pill Master (Echo) app which costs £2.99 (ex. VAT).