I built out a simple "technology access" solution for my late grandma about five years ago. It was just some simple scripts running on a raspberry pi. The scripts would fetch emails from a gmail account, extract the attachments, and display them on loop. The subject line of the email, sender and the date were overlayed on the image.
The advantage over those IoT picture frame products was that I could use any display I wanted. A cheap 32" TV was perfect. This was key as her vision degraded. The approach also allowed anyone in the family with email to send her photos, no proprietary apps or accounts required.
She passed away mid-Covid and I didn't get to see her in her final 6 months, but she always bragged of her "picture machine." I think she was the envy of many of her fellow nursing home residents!
For anyone in a similar situation I'd suggest trying with a regular PC or iPad first and seeing how that goes.
Maybe 7 years ago I set my parents (late 70s) up an old PC with Linux and a Gmail account. I was living in another continent so needed a way to send photos to them. Before this the most technologically advanced thing they had used was a VCR - and even that they had issues with. I was expecting they'd try it for a week then get frustrated and never use it again - and probably not say anything until the next time I visited.
Well the opposite happened, they really took to it. My dad even setup an online store trading LEGO. Yes of course there were issues (it took maybe 3 months of video calls to explain how to copy and paste), but they got there in the end.
The other week my uncle (same age, they are twins) talked through setting up my father on Zoom and he joined in a video call with a social group they went to. My mother doesn't use the computer as she has arthritis (and I don't think my father let's her :D), but flicking through Google Photos on an iPad lets her keep up with the grandchildren.
Kudos to you for doing that, and I'm sorry for your loss. I set up something similar a couple years ago for my 94-yo grandmother with failing eyesight, though my solution was a bit more off-the-shelf; I set up an old 32" TV and chromecast as a smart picture frame that would rotate through images from a specific Google Photos album. I then sent out a link and gave write access to the album to all of our family. Unfortunately it's now getting to the point where she even has trouble seeing those pictures. We also had success setting her up with an Echo with our Amazon Prime (got Unlimited Books) account to facilitate her listening to Audible books; every couple weeks or so we make her a curated list of Audible titles on Prime and she checks off which ones she wants and someone will load those up for her. The best part is that with her newer hearing aids, the Echo can play straight into her head over Bluetooth!
My other grandma have an iPhone that she barely know how to use (she still have the old one on the wall she love). I first call her, than tell her to tap the green button if she she want to use camera (switch to FaceTime).
This works great for us to keep contact.
Though both of this is solutions only allow us to initiate the contact. Here the Yayagram is brilliant!
I do that with my mother and it works well. However, it wasn't easy at all to set up, and she couldn't have done it on her own. The timing was fortunate since I got it for her before the pandemic.
The advantage over those IoT picture frame products was that I could use any display I wanted. A cheap 32" TV was perfect. This was key as her vision degraded. The approach also allowed anyone in the family with email to send her photos, no proprietary apps or accounts required.
She passed away mid-Covid and I didn't get to see her in her final 6 months, but she always bragged of her "picture machine." I think she was the envy of many of her fellow nursing home residents!