It happens almost every day. A friend wants us to get some stuff done for him or her and we’re just too busy at the moment or focused on something completely different. And it slips off our minds. WakesApp brings a mobile app for iOS & Android which allows you to send & track personal timed reminders with your friends, family or colleagues. I made an interview with one of the founders, Ján Skákala.
How does it work?
It allows you to pick a friend from your phone’s contact list (similar to WhatsApp & Viber), send him or her (let’s say on Wednesday): “Let me know by Friday if you’ re coming to party this weekend“ and set a due date (for Friday, of course). Your friend will receive the message instantly, and on Friday, the reminder pops up on both our phones. Simple as email or text message and handy for small to-dos in your personal life.
Where is the idea coming from?
It’s probably a synergy of my previous job where I was leading project managers and the fact that my bro forgets a lot (and he is not the only one). So I noticed that something like WakesApp might fit this gig our personal life. The name of the app comes from „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 finally using a calendar & 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 B-day present or feeding neighbor’s cat. How often do we use calendar reminder to call someone we care about, or to ask him or her to buy a missing piece of groceries on way back from school or work?
The second thing is that although there are many shared calendars platforms out there, these are still quite complex for masses. So it currently works only among very close groups (either colleagues or couples) or require same devices. WakesApp, on the other hand, allows you to schedule a to-do for another person pretty easily. It is like I would come to you home and put a post-it note on your fridge!J Also you can chat around to-dos and you always have an overview on what remains to be done.
WakesApp is suitable to those giving away to-dos to the rest of the world on daily basis J as well as those who are bothered to remember what the others 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 funky sticker that brings some positive energy to otherwise unpleasant reminding.
We believe that WakesApp is sort of a Wunderlist for WhatsApp and that it is probably the first real personal to-do chat or messenger in the world.
Who stands behind the application?
Great students Mišo Poizl & Paťa Žitňáková, my brother Johny, and our development partner www.touch4IT.com – Mišo Korman, Rišo Roštecký & Maťo Mihalech with their teams; all having different backgrounds, starting from project management & IT to legal, PR and marketing. The whole WakesApp team is amazing, altogether eleven hard workers.
Have you had any luck in any of the competitions so far?
Actually, last year, we have been awarded second place in the Slovak round of EU PROFIS competition. But we have made a lot of progress since then and we are looking forward to 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/messengers to the guys without the app, self-reminder, some more virality features, etc. Another thing we are also considering is the integration with calendar & other platforms, but that is the sound of the future for now. Our ultimate target is having lots of happy users, best team & product in the world.
