Come home like we used to.

No. Homie plugs into a regular wall outlet and runs over your home WiFi. There's no phone jack, no copper line, no carrier, and no monthly bill from a phone company. If your house has WiFi and an outlet, you have everything you need.

Yes. Every Homie gets a real, dedicated phone number — the same kind of number as a cell phone or a landline. Anyone can dial it, it shows up on caller ID when you call out, and it's yours. You don't need an app to reach it.

We assign the number when your Homie is set up, and we'll do our best to match your local area code so it looks and feels like a real home number for where you actually live.

Neither. Homie plugs into a standard wall outlet and stays powered. There's nothing to charge overnight, no batteries to replace, and no dead phone when you need it. That's part of the point — it's a phone that's always where you left it and always ready.

We'll be straight with you: Homie runs over your home WiFi, so if your internet or power is out, Homie can't make or receive calls — including 911. That's true of every WiFi-based phone, and we'd rather tell you plainly than bury it.

For everyday use this rarely matters — but it's exactly why we tell every family to keep a mobile phone in the house for emergencies. Homie is designed to be the phone you use, not the only phone you own. See our 911 disclosure for the full details.

Also worth saying: normal internet use won't interrupt a call. Someone streaming a show or hopping on a video call won't knock you off the line. Voice calls use a tiny fraction of a typical home connection.

Both — it depends on your plan.

Homie-to-Homie is free forever, with no monthly fee. Any Homie can call any other Homie, anywhere.

Everywhere lets your approved contacts on regular phones — cells, landlines, Grandma's house — call in and out. It's $99/year (our default, saves 17%) or $10/month.

Calls anywhere in the US are included on Everywhere with no per-minute charges. You can absolutely buy the phone without a subscription — you'll just be limited to calling other Homies and 911.

Only the contacts you approve. Everyone else — robocalls, scammers, telemarketers, unknown numbers — is blocked before the phone ever rings. Not sent to voicemail, not screened after the fact. Blocked. That's the whole point.

You manage the list from the web, and you can change it any time.

This was the question we got most from parents of younger kids, and it's a fair one.

Homie has a standard keypad, so anyone who knows a number can just dial it — the same way you learned your home number as a kid. Plenty of families write the two or three numbers that matter on a card by the phone.

We're also working on one-touch speed dial: press one button, call Grandma. Press another, call Mom. No number to remember, no screen to navigate. The hardware has programmable keys built in, and we're hoping to include speed dial with our V1 phones.

Think of Homie as a modern landline — it looks and feels like the home phone you grew up with, but the hardware is the least of it. The power is the software inside. Homie runs specialized call-screening software over your home WiFi: it checks every incoming call against the approved contacts you set, screens them all before they ever reach the phone, and only lets through the ones you've allowed. You control exactly who can call the phone and who the phone can call.

Yes. You can run more than one Homie in a house, and we can set them up two ways.

One shared number, both ring. A call to your house rings every Homie at once and whoever's closest picks up — exactly like the house phone you grew up with.

Separate numbers. Each phone gets its own line, so the kitchen and the basement can be reached directly.

Multi-phone households aren't in the pre-order checkout yet — email us at hello@thenewhomephone.com and we'll sort out the setup with you directly.

Yes — Homie is built to be the safest kids landline you can put in a home. It's a landline for kids with no internet browser, no apps, and no social media: just a phone that calls the people you approve. Your child can reach Mom, Dad, and Grandma, and no one else can reach your child. It gives kids the independence of their own phone without handing them the whole internet.

For hearing, yes — the handset is HAC certified (hearing aid compatible), with adjustable ring and call volume and a clearer HD speaker than a standard phone line. That was one of the reasons we chose this hardware.

For vision, we want to be honest: this is a compact handset with standard-size keypad buttons, not an oversized large-print design. If low vision is the main concern rather than hearing, Homie isn't built as a specialty low-vision device today. A large-print version is something we're looking at, but we won't claim it before it exists.

Yes. 911 calling is included on both the free and paid plans and bypasses call screening. Because Homie works over the internet, 911 requires power and Wi‑Fi and can be affected by outages — see our 911 disclosure. Keep a mobile phone available for emergencies.

Calls anywhere in the US are included on the Everywhere plan with no per-minute charges. International is handled country by country rather than as a blanket "call anywhere" switch — some destinations have call-quality or fraud issues we'd rather not pass on to customers. If there's a specific country you need, email us at hello@thenewhomephone.com and we'll tell you exactly where that one stands.

Yes. Every Homie ships with a free wall-mount kit in the box. Hang it in the kitchen or hallway like the phone you grew up with, or just set it on a table or counter — whatever works for your home. No extra purchase, no special tools.

At the core, they work similarly — a WiFi phone that only rings for people you approve, free calls between phones, and a plan if you want to reach regular numbers too. If you like the Tin Can idea, you already understand Homie.

Where we're different: Homie is built for the whole household, not just kids. That's a design choice, not a label — it's shaped to sit in a normal living room or a grandparent's kitchen without looking like a toy, and it doubles as a genuine answer to scam calls for older relatives. Homie is est. to ship by Fall 2026.

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Pre-orders are paid in full at checkout — the whole $99 today. Because launch quantities are limited and each order reserves a specific unit in the first batch, pre-orders are final and can't be cancelled once placed. In return, you lock in the lowest price we'll ever offer and a guaranteed spot in that first batch, estimated to ship by Fall 2026.

Your Everywhere calling plan is billed separately and only starts once your Homie arrives — never before. Most families pick annual ($99/year) because it's the best value, but monthly ($10/month) is there if you'd rather stay flexible. Either way, you can turn off auto-renew any time, so you're never charged again if you don't want to be. See our Terms of Service for the full billing and refund details.