The pronounced surge in mobile phone usage among older people in this mobile era has sparked considerable scholarly attention and outputs, concentrating on utilizing mobile phones as a crucial medium for the well-being of aging populations. This has motivated the current study to perform a bibliometric analysis of academic publications related to mobile phones and older people. With a rigorous retrieval strategy applied in the Web of Science database, 2205 journal articles published in the last twenty years were identified and exported. A descriptive performance analysis of publications trends, contributing countries, journals, and authors, as well as an in-depth content analysis of research categories, highly-cited papers, keywords, and co-citations, were conducted and visualized using dedicated software packages (e.g., BibExcel, R-Bibliometrix, and CiteSpace). The identified records revealed an upward trend in terms of annual publications and citations in the past two decades. The United States emerged as the leading contributor in terms of publications and global citations. The examination of frequent keywords, highly cited papers, and literature co-citation resulted in several primary research themes, including text message intervention, fall detection and prevention, age-friendly design, chronic disease management, mHealth and eHealth applications, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the elderly (roughly in chronological order). The findings from this study can serve as a solid reference for future scholars in understanding the research landscapes of this field and benefit technology designers in promoting active and healthy aging via mobile and smart devices.