This article investigates whether smartphones function as environments of polymedia (Madianou &

Miller, 2012) and assesses their consequences for transnational families. The article observes that users
treat smartphones as integrated environments of communicative opportunities and exploit the
differences within media in order to express emotions and manage their relationships with their family
members. With over 10 per cent of the population working abroad, the Philippines is one of the
most intensely migrant societies. Many of these migrants are women with children left behind. In a
recently completed study with Daniel Miller (Madianou and Miller, 2012) we demonstrated how
mobile phones are transforming the ways transnational families maintain long distance
relationships and care for each other at a distance.