Twenty minutes, once, and then it just runs.

Everything here works from the email you receive after paying: it holds the player address, the family page address and your family PIN. You can read this in advance; nothing needs installing on any device.

The listener's iPad or iPhone

You need the device, its wi-fi already working, and the player address from your email.

1. Open Safari (the blue compass). Tap the address bar at the top and type the player address exactly as it appears in the email, for example readingtoruth.com/p/ruth-k7m2. Tap Go.
2. The player appears: a dark screen with one big button. Press it once to check the sound works, then press it again to pause.
3. Tap the Share button: the square with an arrow pointing up. On an iPad it's at the top right of the screen; on an iPhone it's at the bottom in the middle.
4. Scroll down the list that appears and tap Add to Home Screen. It will suggest the name "Name's books". Tap Add (top right).
5. Press the home button (or swipe up on newer models). The new tile is on the home screen. Tap it: the player opens full screen, with no address bar and nothing else to press. This is the only thing they ever need to touch.

An Android tablet or phone (Samsung, Lenovo, Amazon Fire and others)

1. Open Chrome. Tap the address bar and type the player address from the email. Tap Go.
2. Press the big button to check the sound, then press again to pause.
3. Tap the three dots ⋮ at the top right.
4. Tap Add to Home screen (on some phones it says Install app). Tap Add or Install.
5. Go to the home screen. The new tile opens the player full screen.

A laptop or desktop computer

1. Open any browser (Safari, Chrome, Edge). Type the player address into the bar at the top and press Enter.
2. Press F11 on Windows, or Control-Command-F on a Mac, to make it fill the screen with no bars or buttons around it. The same key brings them back.
3. To keep it one click away, drag the small padlock or page icon from the address bar onto the desktop; it becomes a shortcut called "Name's books".
4. In the computer's settings, set the screen never to sleep while plugged in (Windows: Settings → System → Power → Screen and sleep; Mac: System Settings → Lock Screen → "Turn display off" → Never).

Stop it locking, and stop it wandering off the player

Two settings make the difference between a player that is simply always there and one that needs rescuing.

1. Never lock (iPad and iPhone)

1. Open Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → choose Never.
2. If the device has a passcode they can't manage: Settings → Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode) → Turn Passcode Off.
3. Keep it plugged in, on a stand, by their chair. The screen stays on with the big button showing.

2. Lock it into the player (iPad and iPhone)

1. Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access → switch it on.
2. Tap Passcode Settings → Set Guided Access Passcode → choose a code only the family knows.
3. Back on the Guided Access screen, tap Display Auto-Lock → Never.
4. Open the player from its tile. Press the home button (or side button) three times quickly. Tap Start at the top right.
5. From now on the home button does nothing, notifications can't appear, and if the screen is ever put to sleep, waking it goes straight back into the player. To get out yourself: triple-press, enter your code, tap End.

Android

1. Settings → Display → Screen timeout → the longest option, or Never if offered (on Samsung, also turn off Settings → Lock screen → Screen lock type → None).
2. To pin the player: Settings → Security → App pinning (Samsung: Pin windows) → on. Open the player, open the recent-apps view, tap the player's icon at the top of its card → Pin.

Your own phone or computer: the family page

1. Open the family page address from the email on any phone, tablet or computer.
2. Enter the four-digit family PIN. It remembers you on that device, so you won't be asked again.
3. Three books are already on the player. On the Bookshelf tab you can reorder them or take one off; on the Bookshop tab, add classics from the ready-made library with one press, or tell us the title of a book they'd love and we'll help get it onto the shelf.
4. On Voice notes, record a message. It plays the next time they press the big button, before the story carries on.
5. On Her player, choose the colours, button size, announcement voice and reading speed. Changes reach the player within a minute.
6. Forward the email to every relative who should have the PIN. One family account, unlimited relatives, anywhere in the world.

Speakers and hearing aids

The player uses whatever the device is connected to. A tablet's own speaker is fine in a quiet room; a small plug-in or Bluetooth speaker is better in a care home. Bluetooth hearing aids from Signia, Phonak, Oticon, Starkey, ReSound and Widex connect directly to an iPad through Settings → Accessibility → Hearing Devices (not the ordinary Bluetooth menu): open and close the aids' battery doors, or lift them from the charger, wait on that screen, then tap the name that appears and tap Pair. Older aids without Bluetooth need the maker's small clip-on streamer.

If something's wrong

No sound: check the side switch and volume buttons on the device, and that it isn't connected to headphones or hearing aids in another room. "Couldn't load the book": the wi-fi has dropped; the player remembers her place and carries on when it returns. The email never came: check junk, then write to hello@readingtoruth.com from the address you paid with. Anything else: the same address. A person answers, usually the same day.