Best Medical Alert Necklaces

You can take two routes with medical alert necklaces: stylish designs with limited tech or clunky designs with excellent tech. We've yet to see a marriage between style and function in these devices.

That said, we think the Medical Guardian Mini Guardian does the best job of combining powerful GPS, fall detection, and two-way talk technology with a discreet pendant. It comes in three colors.

The more stylish options (including our fave charms from Bay Alarm Medical) just house a help button and must be worn within range of the base station. We'll show you all the options on the market so you can pick the medical alert necklace that suits your style. 

GPS medical alerts like the Mini Guardian replace an at-home base station with a small GPS device (about the size of a pager). When you’re in trouble, press the button on the necklace or GPS unit to call for help. You’ll speak to a Medical Guardian monitoring professional through the portable GPS unit.

The Mini Guardian is waterproof, so you can wear the necklace while in the shower. 

As for looks, it’s not exactly a head-turning accessory, but it could save your life when you need it. You could customize its appearance with some contact paper. (Any other creative ideas?)

Learn more about the Mini Guardian and Medical Guardian's other medical alert devices from our full review.

If you’re looking for a medical alert necklace for a loved one, Lively has a companion app that lets you keep an eye on them directly through your phone.

Like most medical alert devices, you can get fall detection built into Lively Mobile Plus. But you’ll need to pay a little extra per month for this feature. If you’ve been injured from a fall before, it’s worth the money.

The starting price for the Lively Mobile Plus is about $50 for the device and about $25 for the Basic monthly subscription. But the Basic plan provides only emergency calling services. You’ll have to pay around $30 per month or more if you want features like the mobile app or fall detection.

Read our full review of Lively (formerly GreatCall) to learn more about this device.

It’s not what we’d call fashionable, but it’s small enough to wear comfortably wherever you go. The device itself is only a couple inches long, so you can slip it under your shirt or jacket and keep it out of the way until you need it.

It uses five GPS locating technologies too, so EMTs and your emergency contacts will get an accurate location when you call for help. If you’ve ever fallen for nonsense directions from your vehicle GPS system, you’ll understand how helpful this increased accuracy is.

Our biggest complaint about the Philips Go Safe 2 is the pricing and fees. For this Philips device and all the ones we’ve come across, you have to pay an installation fee, even if you install the device yourself. And for just under $50 per month, you may need to make room in your budget to accommodate it.

Read our review of Philips Lifeline medical alert systems to see more products like this.

The Icons Collection pendants are available only with the Home Guardian and Mobile Guardian kits. They cost an extra $2.99 per month. They work as a simple alert button but lack two-way communication and fall detection. They aren’t waterproof either, so you won’t be able to wear one in the shower.

Luckily, the Icons pendants come paired with other devices. The Home Guardian home unit is made of a simple base station and a wearable (your Icons Collection necklace). At 600 feet, its range is significantly shorter than other in-home units. But it has a loud two-way speaker, power outage protection, and strong cellular signal to stay connected with the monitoring center.

The Mobile Guardian kit is the other compatible system for the Icons Collection. The Mobile Guardian is a two-piece GPS system with a GPS unit and the necklace wearable. You’ll need to stay within 350 feet of the GPS unit, but you can call for help using the Icons necklace anywhere your GPS device is. So you can go to lunch with friends, go to your grandkids’ recital, and take a walk in style (and safety).

We love the way the Icons Collections medical alert jewelry looks, especially if you don’t want a clunky medical alert necklace. But you’ll have to sacrifice a few features in the name of fashion.

Learn more about Medical Guardian from our full review.

Medical alert devices don’t have to be clunky and unfashionable. But when you have to call for help in an emergency, practical features win over style. Take the Medical Guardian Mini Guardian, for example, which lacks in looks but wins overall for core features. In contrast, the Medical Guardian Icons Collection looks more like jewelry but is limited in function.

Look for a medical alert necklace that connects to a monitoring center quickly, whether you’re home or on the go. Automatic fall detection, waterproofing, and two-way communication should be features you look for in any medical alert system.

All of the best medical alert systems have a lanyard or necklace option of some kind. We wanted to find the perfect combination of style, functionality, and comfort. We put practical features first, so devices with features like two-way talk and fall detection landed on top.

Showers and bathtubs can be a dangerous place for older adults due to slippery surfaces. That’s why we added waterproofing to our list of considerations. It’s important to have a medical alert necklace that can go with you everywhere. (We’re talking about the greatest bath accessory since the rubber ducky.)

And, of course, we considered style. A medical alert necklace isn’t much use if you don’t want to wear it every day. We found a couple options that were more fashion-forward choices disguised as everyday jewelry.

Learn more about how we approach reviews like this one from our methodology page.

• Best Medical Alert Watches
• Best Safety Wearables for Seniors
• Most Affordable Medical Alert Systems
• Types of Medical Alert Systems and How They Work
• How to Choose a Medical Alert System