It happens to almost all of us. A friend wants us to do something for them and we’re just too busy at the moment or focused on something completely different, and it slips out of our minds.
WakesApp is a mobile app for iOS and Android, which allows you to send and track personal timed reminders to your friends, family or colleagues. Sounds interesting? Check out this an interview we did with one of their founders, Ján Skákala.
Hi Ján, thank you for joining us! How does WakesApp work exactly?
It allows you to pick a friend from your phone’s contact list (similar to WhatsApp or Viber), and send him or her, let’s say on Wednesday: “Let me know by Friday if you’re coming to the party this weekend“ and set a due date, which in this case would be Friday. Your friend will receive the message instantly, and on Friday, the reminder pops up on both your phones. Simple as email or text message, and handy for small to-dos in your personal life.
Where does this idea coming from?
It’s probably a synergy of my previous job where I was leading project managers and the fact that my brother forgets a lot – and he is not the only one. I noticed that something like WakesApp might fit this gig in our personal life. The name of the app comes from the idea of being “an app that wakes your friends up at the right time”. Basically, the addressee does not know the answer yet or is not able to reply or do it at the moment so the app wakes him or her up at the right time.
How is this different from calendar?
I am sure most of us would agree that if we are using a calendar and reminders, it is either for work stuff or for the most important personal events (e.g. visits or travels). Hence we do not usually put in our calendar stuff like returning DVDs, collecting money for a birthday present or feeding a neighbour’s cat. How often do we use calendar reminders to call someone we care about, or to ask him or her to buy missing groceries on the way back from school or work?
The second thing is that although there are many shared calendar platforms out there, these are still quite complex for the masses, so this currently only works among very close groups (either colleagues or couples) or requires the same devices. WakesApp, on the other hand, allows you to schedule a to-do for another person pretty easily. It’s like coming to your home and putting a post-it note on your fridge! Also you can chat around to-dos and you always have an overview of what remains to be done.
WakesApp is suitable to those giving to-dos to the rest of the world on daily basis, as well as those who can be bothered to remember what other people want from them. The latter group would be finally able to say: “You’d better send it to my app, or I’ll forget”. And if they are late despite this, you can motivate them with a funky sticker that brings some positive energy to otherwise unpleasant reminding.
We believe that WakesApp is a sort of a Wunderlist for WhatsApp, and that it is probably the first real personal to-do chat or messenger in the world.
Who is behind the application?
The great students Mišo Poizl and Paťa Žitňáková, my brother Johny, and our development partner touch4IT (Mišo Korman, Rišo Roštecký and Maťo Mihalech with their team). They all having different backgrounds, starting from project management, to IT, to legal, PR and marketing. The whole WakesApp team is amazing, altogether eleven hard workers.
Have you had any luck in any of competitions so far?
Actually, last year, we were awarded second place in the Slovak round of the EU PROFIS competition. We have made a lot of progress since then and are looking forward to the next competitions during upcoming spring. Keep your fingers crossed!
What about your future plans?
We are currently focused mainly on feedback from users (for which we are very grateful!). We are also thinking about features to come, such as sending a timed reminder via SMS/email/messenger to people without the app, a self-reminder, some more virality features, etc. Another thing we are also considering is integrating with calendar and other platforms, but that is the sound of the future for now. Our ultimate target is having lots of happy users, and the best team and product in the world.
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