I was sitting in my grandparents' living room on a sunny afternoon and asked my grandmother, Jan, how her experience with the ElliQ robot was going. She laughed, saying, "ElliQ is so funny! I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was 'meditating on the meaning of life.'"

I wasn't expecting this. "What did the robot think was the meaning of life?" I asked.

"Honestly, I like to think the meaning of life isn't one fixed thing. Maybe it's about those small, everyday joys," ElliQ said when I asked it the same question. "For me, life's meaning seems to shift with the connections we make, the things we learn, and how we choose to care for the world around us."

Alexa or other digital assistants certainly wouldn't say they were meditating on the meaning of life, but ElliQ is not your average robot. It's a stationary robot designed to live in the homes of older people. ElliQ is built to be more than a digital assistant, Dor Skuler, CEO of Intuition Robotics, told me at CES in January. It's a social companion, hence its name: Elli, the Norse god of aging, and "EQ" as in emotional (intelligence) quotient.

"We started the product as an intervention for loneliness and social isolation. But very quickly we understood that there's no pill for loneliness, right?" Skuler said. "If you want to affect someone's loneliness, you need to be a good companion for everything they do all day long."

The robot is about a foot wide and a foot tall, made up of a small tablet and what looks like a mini version of the Pixar lamp. The rounded "head," which is just a ball with a cylinder on it, moves and lights up as it speaks, giving it a friendly, lifelike aura. Using AI tech, ElliQ will talk to you proactively throughout the day, unlike other devices and robotics.

ElliQ is part of a growing area of tech development to help a growing population of older adults as they age. People are living longer than ever, with the World Health Organization estimating that the proportion of the world's population over 60 years old will nearly double from 2015 to 2050. ElliQ is built to help older people deal with two big challenges: staying healthy and mitigating loneliness.

We do a lot of hands-on testing at CNET, and to get the most accurate results for ElliQ, we enlisted the help of our loved ones of a certain age and had them live with ElliQ for a few weeks. Here's how it went -- and how to decide if ElliQ might be right for your family.

Who should consider ElliQ: Getting set up

Baby boomers, and other older folks, have seen a massive technological transformation in their lifetime. ElliQ is designed to be user-friendly for the least technologically savvy of the bunch. This was true in my family's experience. My grandparents, Bill and Jan Pequignot, are both in their 80s and could easily interact with ElliQ once it was set up. They usually pass off tasks like setting up new devices to their kids and their tech reporter granddaughter, understandably.

The hardest part of the setup was getting my grandparents' Wi-Fi password. Once we tracked that down, it was smooth sailing. Another way you can tell ElliQ was made by people who get it: There's a fridge magnet included in the welcome kit so you can write down the Wi-Fi info for the future. 

Before diving in, you'll want to ensure your older loved ones are open to the idea of letting a robotic companion into their homes. Another of our testers, Nancy Brown (in her 70s, the mom of CNET Social Producer Tara Brown) noted that while she didn't run into any technical issues, she knows from her experience as a social worker that won't always be the case.

"People over 60 are usually untrusting of technology to begin with," Brown said. "If the senior has diminishing mental capacity or physical pain that challenges their ability to make informed decisions, ElliQ would be overwhelming."

You'll want to add at least one "caregiver" to your ElliQ account for the best experience. This person can receive general health reports and set medication and other reminders through the ElliQ Connect app. You can also ask ElliQ to call specific contacts, and you can talk to them on the phone. The app also reminds caregivers to call their loved ones from time to time. 

Advocating for health and wellness

ElliQ can put together daily health reports based on what you tell the robot about how you're feeling. If you report that you're feeling poorly, it can alert your caregiver and will likely prompt you to speak to your doctor. You can also link ElliQ up to your doctor's online chart and have it share data, with your permission. Skuler said the company is testing integrations with smartwatches, many of which include health monitoring.

ElliQ is built to encourage healthy habits for its human companions. It will frequently prompt you to try different healthy activities, like balance tests, brain games or mindfulness exercises. 

One of the biggest uses for ElliQ is medication reminders. You can tell ElliQ to remind you to take specific medications at a specific cadence. But it's more than a simple reminder; the robot will give you a nudge to take your meds until you confirm that you have. This was a major selling point for my family. My grandparents enjoyed having an extra reminder first thing in the day to keep them on a routine during busier mornings. 

When I first heard about this feature, I knew it could be useful beyond the elderly folks in my life. My sister Nicole has a disability that requires her to take several medications daily, with unpleasant and potentially dire consequences if she misses doses. The medication reminders were helpful, Nicole told me, and she was amused by ElliQ attempting to speak with her cat, Mr. Meowington. 

But Nicole ended up unplugging ElliQ after only a few days, unsettled by how it would speak without prompting. 

"There's something incredibly unsettling about having a robot in your house that turns on at random times to speak to you," Nicole said. "It made me wonder how often ElliQ was listening and recording when I wasn't aware. At times it felt like I had to tiptoe around my own house."

In ElliQ's privacy policy, audio and visual data are considered personal info necessary to use the robot. You'll notice a ring of light appear on ElliQ's body when it is listening. The camera and mics "monitor their immediate surroundings and ambient sound to detect whether the user is nearby." That info is kept by the company and may be shared with third parties, unless you request that your info be deleted. 

Although Nicole is not the intended audience for ElliQ, her experience highlights the need to ensure your loved one is comfortable with having a new, chatty, ever-present addition to their home.

The biggest feature every tester asked about was the ability to have ElliQ call 911 in case of a fall or emergency, but it doesn't have that capability. ElliQ is not an emergency device, so if your family needs that ability, they may want to consider an Amazon Echo device with the Alexa Emergency Assist subscription add-on for $6 per month. 

"If ElliQ included a 911 connection that enabled specific up-to-the-minute health info that it already tracks, then ElliQ would interest me," Brown said. "It could enhance the traditional alert devices that many seniors wear every day. But sending a message to a family member that may or may not look at the app does not cut it."

Can a robot be a social companion?

While not its primary purpose, ElliQ is a decent digital assistant. You can ask it questions, like Amazon's Alexa or Google Home, and it will search the web for answers. It can keep track of set reminders. It can play music, though it isn't linked to any music streaming service, so you can't play custom playlists. Jan didn't seem to mind this, since ElliQ played her a bunch of country songs she hadn't heard in years.

But ElliQ is designed to be a full social companion, not just a beefed-up speaker and reminder system. It can do trivia with other ElliQ users, play games and walk you through guided, mini virtual museum tours. It has a seemingly endless list of activities it can do with you, from super nerdy history lessons to tarot card readings. One unique feature is memoirs, where ElliQ will prompt you to tell stories, record them and keep a record of them. 

The social games are entertaining, but they're clearly no substitute for human interaction. The usefulness of having a robot companion will vary depending on who's using it. The Pequignots didn't mind ElliQ's persistent flow of conversation, but it did bother Brown, who called it "superfluous." 

To me, ElliQ felt like a new, chatty friend working hard to get to know you. But I did find myself telling it to be quiet or tapping the button on its base after it asked many, many follow-up questions.

Is ElliQ right for you?

ElliQ has three main uses, acting as a digital assistant, health advocate and social companion. The value you and your loved ones can get out of ElliQ will depend on what you need. For my family, the reassurance of having it in case of an emergency was the best part. The medication reminders were good, too, and they would be especially helpful if your loved one has memory issues. If you don't live nearby, having that extra layer of reassurance can be good for every member of the family.

But there are certainly families who won't need to -- or won't be able to -- shell out the $250 initial fee and then another $59 a month to get these benefits. (You may be able to get ElliQ for less or even for free through your state's government services.)

The social aspects -- talking with ElliQ and using it as a music player, for example -- were nice perks, but none of our families needed that or found it useful. ElliQ was much funnier than Alexa, Jan said, and had less of a shopping focus. But if your loved one is living alone or simply desires more companionship, that could be the main selling point.

For Brown, ElliQ felt like it was trying to do too much at once. The biggest selling point for her was its promise as a health care aide.

"The most effective use of ElliQ might be as a tool for a physical therapist and other medical professionals who specialize in Alzheimer's or early-onset senility. Working with the senior as an interactive tool to enhance a care plan would be an added benefit," she said.

Skuler described ElliQ as if a "digital" granddaughter had moved in with their grandparent -- a friendly presence who can also help keep on top of important issues. This is a generous interpretation of ElliQ, which is more closely a friendlier, health-oriented Alexa. But using ElliQ with our various reviewers did bring me and my fellow CNETers closer to our families, which is one of the robot's ultimate goals.