15 ms·

Show HN: I’m an introvert – made an app to help maintain connections with people

169 points by binkHN 5y ago

binkHN 5y ago
Hello hackers. I wrote the app and I hope it can help others like me. I’m not very good at keeping in touch with friend and family. Also, my girlfriend likes little text messages here and there, and I’m not good at sending them. So “there’s an app for that,” right? No, there actually wasn’t. So I made one. I define the app as a smart device automation tool for text messages, calls and email that’ll help you stay in touch. The story on how the app got started, my eureka moments, repeated failures and a little technical detail is at https://medium.com/@mtc.dev/my-first-android-app-story-331c98270ec4?source=friends_link&sk=d01250707057ed71f2c7af8ed4ac9eea https://medium.com/@mtc.dev/my-first-android-app-story-331c9.... I’d love some feedback. Cheers.
- nullify88 5y ago
  Getting a 403 error i'm afraid. I'd love to check it out. Strangely, refreshing the page after recieving the 403 gets me to the app store. But clicking the HN link always results in an inital 403:/
- mathattack 5y ago
  Thank you for sharing! If you don’t mind - has anyone come back to you concerned about automated notes seeming disingenuous? (This could appear like a generic holiday card on what should be a more personal format) From you Medium post it clearly comes from the right place. Also - if your girlfriend is ok with this, and encourages you to finish the project, she’s a keeper.
  - binkHN 5y ago
    Yes! There are definitely those that don’t see eye to eye with me on this! Just told my girlfriend your opinion of her ;) !
    - mathattack 5y ago
      From personal experience, it will come off better if you ask her rather than wait for the other way around. Even though you’re an introvert!
- dstick 5y ago
  Very nice! Congrats on launching. Pro-tip: do not let others know you have or use this. In general people will instantly devalue your outreaches, even though rationally that makes zero sense. You still think and care about them, but in a way that’s… you.
  - binkHN 5y ago
    Thank you! You might want to check out the story I wrote!
  - MiguelHudnandez 5y ago
    It is rational to devalue automatic communication. The birthday card you get from your dentist is not valued. That said I have lost touch with a lot of friends I care about. The best friends are those you can pick back up without maintenance I think.
    - riedel 5y ago
      I second that, but follow up reminders and warnings if you are to eager are really helpful, so reframing this app as helper and let people manually edit the messages is much better. I think particularly sentiment analysis on incoming and outgoing messages would be really helpful for many people not so good at casual communication. Maybe the app should start sending automatically if you really cannot decide for an option in order to not let you think too long. I think particularly positive response reinforcement is needed if one manages to keep up communication in symmetrical fashion.
      - binkHN 5y ago
        Please know, by default, the app will not take any action and largely act as a helpful reminder, and I highly recommend this type of use.
    - fastball 5y ago
      Right but the bday card from your dentist does not expect a subsequent back and forth.
- bussiere 5y ago
  Hi i'am interested in a subscription model and if you have time an api to consume the data of the app like since how many time i've contacted someone. Add birthday etc ... Thanks for your work :)
  - binkHN 5y ago
    I will keep this in mind!
- loloquwowndueo 5y ago
  I keep wondering what will happen if your girlfriend realizes “the app is doing it” - maybe explain to her that it’s hard for you to send those little messages. I think she’ll then appreciate it even more when you do send them.
  - binkHN 5y ago
    See my story I posted in the comment!
- xzel 5y ago
  I almost wrote a similar app (but in a much more limited version) to keep up with friends and family but, ironically, as an extrovert. I wanted to have their birthdays and the last time we spoke so I could keep up with them if our contact was slipping. Congrats on launching! I'll take a look at this to see if it fits my use case.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- xeromal 5y ago
  Thank you so much for this. I've been noodling building something like this for a while but never had the time. Already installed and set up my mom. <3 One question: for the days of the week icons, you have U - M - T - W - R - F - S What are U and R?
  - andredz 5y ago
    U is Sunday and R is Thursday. This is what I found: https://eventguide.com/topics/one_digit_day_abbreviations.html https://eventguide.com/topics/one_digit_day_abbreviations.ht...
    - xeromal 5y ago
      I've never seen that in my life. Thanks for the info!
  - ball_of_lint 5y ago
    sUnday and thuRsday, to disambiguate them from Tuesday and Saturday.
    - seaman1921 5y ago
      Not a great disambiguation since satUrday also has a U.
- cgsmith 5y ago
  I was hoping for more technical detail other than it uses Kotlin. It'd be nice to know some of the under the hood details.
nickthemagicman 5y ago
Did you automate the human connection? I love it!
toomuchtodo 5y ago
Absolutely love it. Does it support birthday, anniversary, and other special date reminders? Consider cribbing off of the Monica friends CRM [1] for inspiration. Any plans for an iOS version? [1] https://www.monicahq.com/ https://www.monicahq.com/
- Dave_TRS 5y ago
  +1 I would love this app if it did birthdays. I like sending texts, not FB messages, but it's a pain to check Facebook to see who's birthday it is and then find them in my address book. I'd love to sit down once and manually create a list of everyone I want to send a birthday text do, and then have this app either auto-send or notify me with a button to launch a blank text I can type to the person
  - kaioelfke 5y ago
    I use my app for birthdays like that. There’s a button that opens the conversation in whatever app I use for this person (WhatsApp, Telegram, Email, …). It’s definitely good to maintain your own contact data somewhere. People delete FB accounts and FB changes all the time. They used to have APIs for birthdays, but they’re gone. So there’s no control unless you own the data.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- binkHN 5y ago
  Thanks! I specifically left date reminders out as I felt these were better handled by a calendar. I have not heard about Monica, but will check it out. As for iOS, not anytime soon; Google is very restrictive when it comes to text messaging and calls and Apple is even more so.
  - floresmd 5y ago
    Please consider an iOS version even if it’s just a reminder app. I have too many other thoughts on my mind and I need to remember to reach out to people.
29athrowaway 5y ago
I do not like the name "CommuniqAI". Think about how a person would recommend this app to a friend. A: "Hey, check this out, it's an app called 'CommuniqAI', it's great". B: "How do I spell that?" A: "C-o-m-m-u-n-i-q..." B: "Sorry, I lost you, start over" A: "It starts the same as Communism, but ism it ends in q-A-I" B: "grrr, fuck it. I am going to install Signal or Telegram" Don't make it harder for people to recommend your app.
- officialjunk 5y ago
  or give them a link?
  - 29athrowaway 5y ago
    That too but the name is an important factor.
    - azinman2 5y ago
      The more important factor is the actual execution. And the reality is this is has been done, many, many times. In fact a friend recently wrote a version of this in order to learn Swift. Ultimately it’s a social problem not a technological problem. I don’t think this is quite hitting the nail on the end. The author said part of the motivation was that his gf wanted periodic reach outs during the day. Automating this isn’t the solution because it’s totally inorganic. They need to figure their communication out themselves — this isn’t the right path that’s sustainable.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - 29athrowaway 5y ago
        I disagree. Your product is not alone in the world. If you give yourself a handicap (bad name), a competitor will clone your app, use a much easier name, capture all your target audience and leave you holding the bag.
evrydayhustling 5y ago
Love the simple design. $.02 - absolutely require interaction / customization before the app sends messages. Reminding people to send is service enough, and creates an interaction opportunity to refine settings. But sending automatically requires asymmetric attention between sender and recipient - which is almost always bad news for relationships, soon or over time.
- binkHN 5y ago
  Thanks! And I concur! By default, the app will not take any action and largely act as a helpful reminder, and I highly recommend this type of use!
  - lolinder 5y ago
    I think the bulk of the negative reaction in this thread wouldn't have happened if it didn't have the auto-send feature at all. It would also make it easier to build an iOS version. FWIW, I love the idea! Ignore the negativity. There's a lot of misunderstandings.
gtirloni 5y ago
The link is not working.
- binkHN 5y ago
  I'm sorry, but the app is currently in beta and limited to 88 countries/regions to better support this. Please let me know what country you are in so that I may rectify this.
  - tgdn 5y ago
    France
    - binkHN 5y ago
      Thank you. I made the change, but, unfortunately, it might take a few hours to be effective.
iovrthoughtthis 5y ago
love it the goal. why do you struggle to maintain connections?
bdcp 5y ago
Neat. But where in the world do you live that you only need SMS? I'd give it a go if it works with WhatsApp
- barbazoo 5y ago
  Same here. I'd be more interested in the reminder aspect of it without integration with any specific chat app.
- binkHN 5y ago
  As a first stab I went with SMS text messages because the functionality is built into the device and the app can easily access the SMS messaging history on the device to make better decisions. I plan to review support for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and friends in the future.
- smabie 5y ago
  I feel like most people don't use WhatsApp in the US? Or at least, I don't (regularly).
amelius 5y ago
You should change: > email that’ll help you stay in touch with those that mean the most to you into: > email that’ll help you stay in touch with those who mean the most to you
- binkHN 5y ago
  I appreciate the copywrite feedback! Will do!
kseistrup 5y ago
Disclaimer: I haven't installed the app. Reading the description and seeing the screendumps I get the impression that the app actually does the messaging for you. For me it would be much more valuable to get a reminder to contact people I love and care about. Time runs so fast, I forget it's been a week or two since I last said hello to that person. With a reminder I would be able to keep in touch with people, yet be the one who actually composes and sends the message. If I have misunderstood the purpose of the app, please forget this comment.
- binkHN 5y ago
  By default, the app will not take any action and largely act as a helpful reminder, and I highly recommend this type of use.
  - kseistrup 5y ago
    Thanks!
- xeromal 5y ago
  There's a toggle that stops it from sending messages.
dennisy 5y ago
I am sorry but I really think this is a place where we just don’t need “an app for that”. This of course if just my view, but if someone uses this to call me the value of that will be super low.
- tolbish 5y ago
  Stay in touch with those that mean the most to you...by automating your interactions with them with AI! This is straight out of Silicon Valley.
  - snet0 5y ago
    Definitely. I struggle to say this is "peak HN", since HN doesn't like social media in general, but it's definitely something that evolved out of the particular kind of software engineer "optimisation" for productivity that seemingly involves automating the entirety of human existence. I guarantee this idea has been used as a punchline in a TV show.
  - sodality2 5y ago
    >automating your interactions with them with AI It does not do this- it either notifies you to talk to them if you haven't in a while, or it automatically sends a single message to start a conversation. Note that I don't necessarily agree with this. I simply have a mental list of friends who I currently am keeping in touch with and every once in a while check up on the ones I haven't spoken to in a few days.
    - tolbish 5y ago
      Do you suppose there is a "natural max" of connections one is primed to keep in touch with? That after that number, it becomes more or less a task rather than reaching out out of genuine interest.
      - jlokier 5y ago
        I think there are more parameters. Some people's "natural max" for actively calling or messaging on a timescale of, say, weeks or months if there's no feeling of obligation is zero. But it doesn't necessarily mean that aren't interested. Some of those people love keeping in touch when it happens - and are genuinely interested. Their "natural max" for people they enjoy being in touch with regularly (ie. not being a task) is much higher than the number they tend initiate things with. Come to think of it that might be true for everyone.
neither_color 5y ago
This is a cool idea. I constantly come across as a dick because a friend will message me, and I'll think about what to respond with, hesitate because I want to come up with the BEST response, then get distracted by another task, forget to text them back until the next day, etc. There are also people I only see every few months and have a blast with, then completely radio silence them for months until I see them again. I really have no idea how to keep up with people.
- neckardt 5y ago
  > I constantly come across as a dick because a friend will message me, and I'll think about what to respond with, hesitate because I want to come up with the BEST response, then get distracted by another task, forget to text them back until the next day, etc. There are two paradigms I see people use to solve this: 1. Text back as soon as you see the message and be okay with your response not being optimal. This is what I do the most. 2. Don't open the app to read the message until you have time to respond, then commit to responding. This way you'll have the message notification reminding you to respond and you don't leave your friend on read.
  - randomdata 5y ago
    > Don't open the app to read the message until you have time to respond, then commit to responding. Then you end up with unread messages for weeks at a time.
    - smt88 5y ago
      > Then you end up with unread messages for weeks at a time. If people are a priority for you, then you need to just make time. No one is unable to spare 5 minutes to text back. You just have to sacrifice 5 minutes of something else, whether it's work, a video game, or a hobby. If you can't spare that, then I guess accept that those people aren't that important to you.
      - jlokier 5y ago
villgax 5y ago
@dang, HN url parser for extracting domain is borked. This should have play.google.com
imagine99 5y ago
Is there a function for this to populate the clipboard with the predefined text and maybe open the messaging program (like Signal, Telegram, Wire, WhatsApp)? This way it could also be used relatively easily with these apps which probably can't be automated like SMS...
- binkHN 5y ago
  As an initial start I went with SMS text messages because the functionality is built into the device and the app can easily access the SMS messaging history on the device to make better decisions. I plan to review support for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and friends in the future.
- kaioelfke 5y ago
  Not sure about Android, but on iOS some communication apps support this. My app deep links into those.
ogwh 5y ago
This doesn't help you maintain connections with people, it's emotional forgery and anyone caught using something like this will find their "connections" evaporate instantly. If you want to maintain connections with people put the effort in, that's the substance of the connection in the first place. If you don't, then don't. People want to feel like they matter to you, so you contacting them shows that you care about them and fulfills that need. This app is a betrayal of that. Is this connected to an article from The Onion or something? A joke?
- bobiny 5y ago
  By caught do you mean somebody sifting through your unlocked phone?
  - unixfg 5y ago
    If one of the edge cases the author mentions pops up they could deduce from the context of the message that you didn't personally send it at that moment. Short of lying about it and claiming it must have been slow to arrive, I'd say you were caught.
    - alisonkisk 5y ago
      "I use a program to send messages at a programmed time"
- snet0 5y ago
  I came to this thread earlier and thought I'd taken crazy pills, so I'd check back later. Not a single non-positive comment. People who use this or think this is a good thing have fundamentally misunderstood social interaction. Your girlfriend doesn't want the signal that you care, she wants you to actually care, and keeping in contact is an expression of caring. If you need to forge something this foundational, I'm sorry but that's not being introverted, that's treating social interaction as a game or trade. I feel like it's bordering on psychopathy.
  - 5y ago
superasn 5y ago
Would be amazing if it could interface with web.whatsapp.com as most people I know use WA primarily nowadays instead of sms.
kakawait 5y ago
I'm not able to access (play tells me it does not found)? Is country limited app or something?
- binkHN 5y ago
  Yes. I'm sorry. The app is currently in beta and limited to 88 countries/regions to better support this. Please let me know what country you are in so that I may rectify this.
  - kakawait 5y ago
    I'm come from France
    - binkHN 5y ago
      This should be sorted now! Thank you!
  - zubi 5y ago
    I'm an introvert from Turkey.
    - binkHN 5y ago
      Added! Please give this a few hours to be effective.
    - xeromal 5y ago
      This cracked me up. haha. Hey bro! I've always wanted to visit.
Freeboots 5y ago
Puts me in mind of an assistant buying birthday gifts for the bosses kids, and the boss has no idea what gift 'they' gave, or even who/when.
- inawarminister 5y ago
  Always made me curious why the boss don't request daily/weekly summaries of what their assistants did for the kids. Would be easy enough with an app we control, I think?
- hungryforcodes 5y ago
  You can customize it for your friends.
brushfoot 5y ago
Yuck. If interacting with me is such a chore that someone has to automate it, I'd rather not hear from them. People don't want to be your duties. They want to be your pleasures. This changes messages from "I felt like talking to you" to "my scheduled trigger fired; please start a conversation so I can check you off my checklist." If I found out someone were using this to communicate with me, I'd frankly cut them out of my life -- not out of hatred, but because I'm not a sadist. If it's tedious for you to talk to me, I don't want to cause you that pain.
- fastball 5y ago
  I feel like you're conflating the friction of starting a conversation with the friction of continuing one, which can be very different things.
  - trutannus 5y ago
    Most of the negative views on this app appear to fundamentally misunderstand how highly introverted people socialize. I know several highly introverted people. Having something automatically start a conversation for them which they can then engage in themselves would be very helpful. Especially for people who have social anxiety. My take was never that this app was going to socialize for you, but rather would initiate conversations for you which you could then finish yourself. There's nothing wrong with doing that...
    - jbuhbjlnjbn 5y ago
      What an interesting point. I highly value your opinion. -this message was created by an automated bot
  - brushfoot 5y ago
    There's no friction in starting something you love to do. If you don't love talking to someone that you don't have to talk to, you shouldn't do it. You're putting them in the awkward position of having to converse with someone that they know doesn't want to converse with them. And yes, they'll know. The dryness of the sample messages is tip-off enough. Personally, I hate hearing from people like this -- not because I dislike them or they bore me, but because I'm not a sadist. I don't like the pain and boredom that I sense they're experiencing in trying to force themselves to talk to me out of duty. There are other ways to connect with people besides conversation. As the Fred Rogers song goes, "There are many ways to say I love you....There's the singing way....Cleaning up a room can say I love you; hanging up a coat before you're asked to do it; drawing special pictures on the holidays; and making plays." That will look different for an adult than a child, but the principle still applies.
fouc 5y ago
Is the link broken or app is down? It redirects to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.mtc.ga https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.mtc.ga And shows "We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server."
- binkHN 5y ago
  I'm sorry, but the app is currently in beta and limited to 88 countries/regions to better support this. Please let me know what country you are in so that I may rectify this.
  - afbpinheiro 5y ago
    Can you make it available to Portugal? I would love to give it a try
    - binkHN 5y ago
      Done! Please give this a few hours to be effective!
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
Graffur 5y ago
This is not healthy. Instead the friends should realise that their introverted friends won't always be in contact but that does not change the relationship.
szundi 5y ago
The moment someone realizes you are using this, you may be seen as someone fake. Never let it happen.
- smnrchrds 5y ago
  I never remember people's birthdays, so I have added them to my calendar, and I make sure to message people to wish them a happy birthday when I get the calendar notification. Does this make my happy birthday wishes fake? Should I never let anyone realize I use a calendar?
  - asteroidbelt 5y ago
    You may care about someone but forget their birthday exact date one day ahead. But you care someone and forget to send a message any day during the month? That’s not possible, that means you don’t really care.
    - GrinningFool 5y ago
      I've been hearing people equate forgetting with not caring for my entire life. It took me years to realize that they - and you - just can't conceive of someone who's mind operates in a way so fundamentally different from their own. So they put their values onto us, and blame us for not living up to them. I don't blame you - that level of empathy is a hard thing to find - but damn am I tired of hearing this.
      - cco 5y ago
        Not trying to be judgmental here, just trying to get your take. But if one of your close friends got cancer and died a few months later, would you ever get to say goodbye to them? Given the other descriptions in this thread, it seems like you wouldn't unless they or someone they were close to reached out to you to let you know. If that was the case and I was your friend and I died with zero contact from you, I would have to strongly consider that you do not care about me and were not there for me as a friend when I needed it the most. That is how I would feel about it, but I'm curious if what I describe is a fair hypothetical and how you think about that situation.
HPsquared 5y ago
I was going to question whether this is really an "AI" application but, given its function - mimicking a human - it literally is artificial intelligence.
shepherdjerred 5y ago
Relationships-as-a-service?
tomaszs 5y ago
I think your application is awesome. Also, that some people here in comments are offensive and don't understand really what being an introvert is about. Your application can help not only introverts, but also people who are isolated, depressed, who struggle to regain social connections after last months. Thank you for that. You put a lot of effort in the app and it works great. It is one of the best ideas and implementations I have seen in five years. Congrats again! It is far beyond my imagination how positive impact your project can have for millions of people!
- binkHN 5y ago
  Wonderful words of encouragement! Thank you! I realize some people might see this differently, but, at the end of the day, I did what works best for me and felt others could benefit as well.
ShaneMcGowan 5y ago
I can't decided if automated "love you" messages is dystopian af or cute
- brutal_chaos_ 5y ago
  Intent is the distinguishing factor, IMHO. If I'm using this because I really do wish to reach out more, I see no harm. It's like riding a bike to get somewhere, it helps you get where you want to be, just a little faster. If apps start to doing this on their own, because AI, then we've got a problem...
  - ShaneMcGowan 5y ago
    Relationship as a Service
impreciouschild 5y ago
I think the consequences of being introverted, asocial, hesitant, distracted etc are part of regular interaction. Just because we can be connected with 10k people doesn't mean we should be. We also don't currently have the capacity for broadband bidrectional intimacy. The way parasocial relationships have bloomed is owed to infinite friend lists. Also, people gravitate towards what is meaningful for them. I think that some people find it meaningful to feel that they're disconnected. I think that loss and disconnection is a part of life, and while I admire efforts to connect, we have limits. I think it's important for those (and this includes myself) who are asocial to acknowledge this aspect of themselves and accept the consequences of their persona. Last, I think that scripted or automated interactions inherently devalue interactions. A huge part of having relationships lies in the effort to connect. This is why "Welcome to Costco, I love you" is a joke. It also neatly defines the flawed scope of this app. Because of that, I declare that this is a CRM app, not a real life relationship app.
neilv 5y ago
This seems less a tool for introverts, than for sociopaths.
pelagicAustral 5y ago
Introvert, has gf... next.
asteroidbelt 5y ago
You are not introvert, you are sociopath. And this app will “help” people stay this way instead of learning to connect. This app is cheating. It is like telling your friends you baked a cake while you bought it. I’d be disappointed if someone was using it with me. Would be OK if they warned me upfront, though.
- dang 5y ago
  We've banned this account. You can't attack others like this on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - asteroidbelt 5y ago
    Fair enough. But I can still post comments?
    - dang 5y ago
      Banned accounts can still post comments, but their comments are killed by default - that is, they're marked as [dead] and only users with 'showdead' turned on in their profile can see them. If enough users vouch for a [dead] post, it gets restored. But why not read the site guidelines and take the intended spirit of this site to heart instead? We're happy to unban accounts when people give us reason to believe that they'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - asteroidbelt 5y ago
        Hey dang, thank you for the comment and the explanations. I'm obviously overreacted, I'll try to avoid comments like that in the future.
        dang 5y ago
        Ok, I've unbanned your account. Please stick to the guidelines in the future and all should be fine :)
evrenesat 5y ago
Something related; I wish "Let's chat, call me when you are available" button for Whatsapp,Telegram etc. Or even better, ability to suggest a few time slots to the callee. That might help with not being able to write "hey my friend, I miss you. Let's chat sometime" messages and unable to decide on that "sometime". An app with SMS/phone calls wouldn't work well for me as most of my friends are in another country so it needs to be VoIP.
xeromal 5y ago
OMG, dude, this has been sitting in my TODO ideas document for a few years. I'm so excited to try it out. Thank you!
_lex 5y ago
I use SKEDit to achieve this functionality today on my android phone. It works with phone calls, sms, whatsapp and emails. It's really cool when it activates - it literally will pull downthe search bar, type in 'whatsapp' to select the app, launch the app, search for the contact I told it to message, tap on them to message them, and type in the message I had automated - and you can just watch and follow along as it does all this. V awesome if you have social anxiety, a poor memory, a busy schedule, or all of the above.
stevage 5y ago
"sending 'i love you' once a day" - ewww. I would hate anyone that did that to me.
2easy 5y ago
Have you tried? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uhabits&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uha... It is enough for me to manage many relationships.
pengaru 5y ago
introvert != self-absorbed
thunkshift1 5y ago
Cool app! Is the data of the contacts stored locally or on your servers?
- binkHN 5y ago
  Thanks! Data is stored locally in a SQLite database.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
smsm42 5y ago
I'm not sure I'd like to get a message from a friend that was actually written by an automated app. As an introvert, I am ok with people being silent friends with me for a while. But somebody started bombarding me with automatically scripted messages which they didn't personally write and meant to send then and there - if that was a close friend, I'd ask what's wrong with them and whether I can help to fix it, because certainly if it'd be ok they'd never do something so bizarre. Otherwise I'd probably just sigh and block them. Sorry, I don't mean it as a personal criticism towards you, if it works for you and your friends, all power to you. Just expressing another view on this topic.
jbuhbjlnjbn 5y ago
I mean no hostility or disrespect when I say this. It is astonishing so many people commenting in this thread cannot see the giant, glaring issue with such a disingenious app. Everyone no seeing an issue should for his/her own sake do a sociopathy/psychopathy test to check.
asr21 5y ago
I am introvert but this has never been a problem for me. I have gotten addicted to social media. So when I feel bored.. I call and message my friends .
bobiny 5y ago
Wannabe psychologists and communication experts trying to teach others how they should talk to people. Prerecorded messages are fake and people using this app are sociopaths. Judgemental much? I say author and anybody like him in this matter can communicate however they want.
cphoover 5y ago
I don't think AI generated spam is going to help your relationships... Sorry dude

169 points by binkHN 5y ago

Hello hackers. I wrote the app and I hope it can help others like me. I’m not very good at keeping in touch with friend and family. Also, my girlfriend likes little text messages here and there, and I’m not good at sending them. So “there’s an app for that,” right? No, there actually wasn’t. So I made one. I define the app as a smart device automation tool for text messages, calls and email that’ll help you stay in touch. The story on how the app got started, my eureka moments, repeated failures and a little technical detail is at https://medium.com/@mtc.dev/my-first-android-app-story-331c98270ec4?source=friends_link&sk=d01250707057ed71f2c7af8ed4ac9eea https://medium.com/@mtc.dev/my-first-android-app-story-331c9.... I’d love some feedback. Cheers.

nullify88 5y ago
Getting a 403 error i'm afraid. I'd love to check it out. Strangely, refreshing the page after recieving the 403 gets me to the app store. But clicking the HN link always results in an inital 403:/
mathattack 5y ago
Thank you for sharing! If you don’t mind - has anyone come back to you concerned about automated notes seeming disingenuous? (This could appear like a generic holiday card on what should be a more personal format) From you Medium post it clearly comes from the right place. Also - if your girlfriend is ok with this, and encourages you to finish the project, she’s a keeper.
- binkHN 5y ago
  Yes! There are definitely those that don’t see eye to eye with me on this! Just told my girlfriend your opinion of her ;) !
  - mathattack 5y ago
    From personal experience, it will come off better if you ask her rather than wait for the other way around. Even though you’re an introvert!
dstick 5y ago
Very nice! Congrats on launching. Pro-tip: do not let others know you have or use this. In general people will instantly devalue your outreaches, even though rationally that makes zero sense. You still think and care about them, but in a way that’s… you.
- binkHN 5y ago
  Thank you! You might want to check out the story I wrote!
- MiguelHudnandez 5y ago
  It is rational to devalue automatic communication. The birthday card you get from your dentist is not valued. That said I have lost touch with a lot of friends I care about. The best friends are those you can pick back up without maintenance I think.
  - riedel 5y ago
    I second that, but follow up reminders and warnings if you are to eager are really helpful, so reframing this app as helper and let people manually edit the messages is much better. I think particularly sentiment analysis on incoming and outgoing messages would be really helpful for many people not so good at casual communication. Maybe the app should start sending automatically if you really cannot decide for an option in order to not let you think too long. I think particularly positive response reinforcement is needed if one manages to keep up communication in symmetrical fashion.
    - binkHN 5y ago
      Please know, by default, the app will not take any action and largely act as a helpful reminder, and I highly recommend this type of use.
  - fastball 5y ago
    Right but the bday card from your dentist does not expect a subsequent back and forth.
bussiere 5y ago
Hi i'am interested in a subscription model and if you have time an api to consume the data of the app like since how many time i've contacted someone. Add birthday etc ... Thanks for your work :)
- binkHN 5y ago
  I will keep this in mind!
loloquwowndueo 5y ago
I keep wondering what will happen if your girlfriend realizes “the app is doing it” - maybe explain to her that it’s hard for you to send those little messages. I think she’ll then appreciate it even more when you do send them.
- binkHN 5y ago
  See my story I posted in the comment!
xzel 5y ago
I almost wrote a similar app (but in a much more limited version) to keep up with friends and family but, ironically, as an extrovert. I wanted to have their birthdays and the last time we spoke so I could keep up with them if our contact was slipping. Congrats on launching! I'll take a look at this to see if it fits my use case.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
xeromal 5y ago
Thank you so much for this. I've been noodling building something like this for a while but never had the time. Already installed and set up my mom. <3 One question: for the days of the week icons, you have U - M - T - W - R - F - S What are U and R?
- andredz 5y ago
  U is Sunday and R is Thursday. This is what I found: https://eventguide.com/topics/one_digit_day_abbreviations.html https://eventguide.com/topics/one_digit_day_abbreviations.ht...
  - xeromal 5y ago
    I've never seen that in my life. Thanks for the info!
- ball_of_lint 5y ago
  sUnday and thuRsday, to disambiguate them from Tuesday and Saturday.
  - seaman1921 5y ago
    Not a great disambiguation since satUrday also has a U.
cgsmith 5y ago
I was hoping for more technical detail other than it uses Kotlin. It'd be nice to know some of the under the hood details.

nickthemagicman 5y ago

Did you automate the human connection? I love it!

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Absolutely love it. Does it support birthday, anniversary, and other special date reminders? Consider cribbing off of the Monica friends CRM [1] for inspiration. Any plans for an iOS version? [1] https://www.monicahq.com/ https://www.monicahq.com/

Dave_TRS 5y ago
+1 I would love this app if it did birthdays. I like sending texts, not FB messages, but it's a pain to check Facebook to see who's birthday it is and then find them in my address book. I'd love to sit down once and manually create a list of everyone I want to send a birthday text do, and then have this app either auto-send or notify me with a button to launch a blank text I can type to the person
- kaioelfke 5y ago
  I use my app for birthdays like that. There’s a button that opens the conversation in whatever app I use for this person (WhatsApp, Telegram, Email, …). It’s definitely good to maintain your own contact data somewhere. People delete FB accounts and FB changes all the time. They used to have APIs for birthdays, but they’re gone. So there’s no control unless you own the data.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
binkHN 5y ago
Thanks! I specifically left date reminders out as I felt these were better handled by a calendar. I have not heard about Monica, but will check it out. As for iOS, not anytime soon; Google is very restrictive when it comes to text messaging and calls and Apple is even more so.
- floresmd 5y ago
  Please consider an iOS version even if it’s just a reminder app. I have too many other thoughts on my mind and I need to remember to reach out to people.

29athrowaway 5y ago

I do not like the name "CommuniqAI". Think about how a person would recommend this app to a friend. A: "Hey, check this out, it's an app called 'CommuniqAI', it's great". B: "How do I spell that?" A: "C-o-m-m-u-n-i-q..." B: "Sorry, I lost you, start over" A: "It starts the same as Communism, but ism it ends in q-A-I" B: "grrr, fuck it. I am going to install Signal or Telegram" Don't make it harder for people to recommend your app.

officialjunk 5y ago
or give them a link?
- 29athrowaway 5y ago
  That too but the name is an important factor.
  - azinman2 5y ago
    The more important factor is the actual execution. And the reality is this is has been done, many, many times. In fact a friend recently wrote a version of this in order to learn Swift. Ultimately it’s a social problem not a technological problem. I don’t think this is quite hitting the nail on the end. The author said part of the motivation was that his gf wanted periodic reach outs during the day. Automating this isn’t the solution because it’s totally inorganic. They need to figure their communication out themselves — this isn’t the right path that’s sustainable.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - 29athrowaway 5y ago
      I disagree. Your product is not alone in the world. If you give yourself a handicap (bad name), a competitor will clone your app, use a much easier name, capture all your target audience and leave you holding the bag.

evrydayhustling 5y ago

Love the simple design. $.02 - absolutely require interaction / customization before the app sends messages. Reminding people to send is service enough, and creates an interaction opportunity to refine settings. But sending automatically requires asymmetric attention between sender and recipient - which is almost always bad news for relationships, soon or over time.

binkHN 5y ago
Thanks! And I concur! By default, the app will not take any action and largely act as a helpful reminder, and I highly recommend this type of use!
- lolinder 5y ago
  I think the bulk of the negative reaction in this thread wouldn't have happened if it didn't have the auto-send feature at all. It would also make it easier to build an iOS version. FWIW, I love the idea! Ignore the negativity. There's a lot of misunderstandings.

gtirloni 5y ago

The link is not working.

binkHN 5y ago
I'm sorry, but the app is currently in beta and limited to 88 countries/regions to better support this. Please let me know what country you are in so that I may rectify this.
- tgdn 5y ago
  France
  - binkHN 5y ago
    Thank you. I made the change, but, unfortunately, it might take a few hours to be effective.

iovrthoughtthis 5y ago

love it the goal. why do you struggle to maintain connections?

bdcp 5y ago

Neat. But where in the world do you live that you only need SMS? I'd give it a go if it works with WhatsApp

barbazoo 5y ago
Same here. I'd be more interested in the reminder aspect of it without integration with any specific chat app.
binkHN 5y ago
As a first stab I went with SMS text messages because the functionality is built into the device and the app can easily access the SMS messaging history on the device to make better decisions. I plan to review support for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and friends in the future.
smabie 5y ago
I feel like most people don't use WhatsApp in the US? Or at least, I don't (regularly).

amelius 5y ago

You should change: > email that’ll help you stay in touch with those that mean the most to you into: > email that’ll help you stay in touch with those who mean the most to you

binkHN 5y ago
I appreciate the copywrite feedback! Will do!

kseistrup 5y ago

Disclaimer: I haven't installed the app. Reading the description and seeing the screendumps I get the impression that the app actually does the messaging for you. For me it would be much more valuable to get a reminder to contact people I love and care about. Time runs so fast, I forget it's been a week or two since I last said hello to that person. With a reminder I would be able to keep in touch with people, yet be the one who actually composes and sends the message. If I have misunderstood the purpose of the app, please forget this comment.

binkHN 5y ago
By default, the app will not take any action and largely act as a helpful reminder, and I highly recommend this type of use.
- kseistrup 5y ago
  Thanks!
xeromal 5y ago
There's a toggle that stops it from sending messages.

dennisy 5y ago

I am sorry but I really think this is a place where we just don’t need “an app for that”. This of course if just my view, but if someone uses this to call me the value of that will be super low.

tolbish 5y ago
Stay in touch with those that mean the most to you...by automating your interactions with them with AI! This is straight out of Silicon Valley.
- snet0 5y ago
  Definitely. I struggle to say this is "peak HN", since HN doesn't like social media in general, but it's definitely something that evolved out of the particular kind of software engineer "optimisation" for productivity that seemingly involves automating the entirety of human existence. I guarantee this idea has been used as a punchline in a TV show.
- sodality2 5y ago
  >automating your interactions with them with AI It does not do this- it either notifies you to talk to them if you haven't in a while, or it automatically sends a single message to start a conversation. Note that I don't necessarily agree with this. I simply have a mental list of friends who I currently am keeping in touch with and every once in a while check up on the ones I haven't spoken to in a few days.
  - tolbish 5y ago
    Do you suppose there is a "natural max" of connections one is primed to keep in touch with? That after that number, it becomes more or less a task rather than reaching out out of genuine interest.
    - jlokier 5y ago
      I think there are more parameters. Some people's "natural max" for actively calling or messaging on a timescale of, say, weeks or months if there's no feeling of obligation is zero. But it doesn't necessarily mean that aren't interested. Some of those people love keeping in touch when it happens - and are genuinely interested. Their "natural max" for people they enjoy being in touch with regularly (ie. not being a task) is much higher than the number they tend initiate things with. Come to think of it that might be true for everyone.

neither_color 5y ago

This is a cool idea. I constantly come across as a dick because a friend will message me, and I'll think about what to respond with, hesitate because I want to come up with the BEST response, then get distracted by another task, forget to text them back until the next day, etc. There are also people I only see every few months and have a blast with, then completely radio silence them for months until I see them again. I really have no idea how to keep up with people.

neckardt 5y ago
> I constantly come across as a dick because a friend will message me, and I'll think about what to respond with, hesitate because I want to come up with the BEST response, then get distracted by another task, forget to text them back until the next day, etc. There are two paradigms I see people use to solve this: 1. Text back as soon as you see the message and be okay with your response not being optimal. This is what I do the most. 2. Don't open the app to read the message until you have time to respond, then commit to responding. This way you'll have the message notification reminding you to respond and you don't leave your friend on read.
- randomdata 5y ago
  > Don't open the app to read the message until you have time to respond, then commit to responding. Then you end up with unread messages for weeks at a time.
  - smt88 5y ago
    > Then you end up with unread messages for weeks at a time. If people are a priority for you, then you need to just make time. No one is unable to spare 5 minutes to text back. You just have to sacrifice 5 minutes of something else, whether it's work, a video game, or a hobby. If you can't spare that, then I guess accept that those people aren't that important to you.
    - jlokier 5y ago

villgax 5y ago

@dang, HN url parser for extracting domain is borked. This should have play.google.com

imagine99 5y ago

Is there a function for this to populate the clipboard with the predefined text and maybe open the messaging program (like Signal, Telegram, Wire, WhatsApp)? This way it could also be used relatively easily with these apps which probably can't be automated like SMS...

binkHN 5y ago
As an initial start I went with SMS text messages because the functionality is built into the device and the app can easily access the SMS messaging history on the device to make better decisions. I plan to review support for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and friends in the future.
kaioelfke 5y ago
Not sure about Android, but on iOS some communication apps support this. My app deep links into those.

ogwh 5y ago

This doesn't help you maintain connections with people, it's emotional forgery and anyone caught using something like this will find their "connections" evaporate instantly. If you want to maintain connections with people put the effort in, that's the substance of the connection in the first place. If you don't, then don't. People want to feel like they matter to you, so you contacting them shows that you care about them and fulfills that need. This app is a betrayal of that. Is this connected to an article from The Onion or something? A joke?

bobiny 5y ago
By caught do you mean somebody sifting through your unlocked phone?
- unixfg 5y ago
  If one of the edge cases the author mentions pops up they could deduce from the context of the message that you didn't personally send it at that moment. Short of lying about it and claiming it must have been slow to arrive, I'd say you were caught.
  - alisonkisk 5y ago
    "I use a program to send messages at a programmed time"
snet0 5y ago
I came to this thread earlier and thought I'd taken crazy pills, so I'd check back later. Not a single non-positive comment. People who use this or think this is a good thing have fundamentally misunderstood social interaction. Your girlfriend doesn't want the signal that you care, she wants you to actually care, and keeping in contact is an expression of caring. If you need to forge something this foundational, I'm sorry but that's not being introverted, that's treating social interaction as a game or trade. I feel like it's bordering on psychopathy.
- 5y ago

superasn 5y ago

Would be amazing if it could interface with web.whatsapp.com as most people I know use WA primarily nowadays instead of sms.

kakawait 5y ago

I'm not able to access (play tells me it does not found)? Is country limited app or something?

binkHN 5y ago
Yes. I'm sorry. The app is currently in beta and limited to 88 countries/regions to better support this. Please let me know what country you are in so that I may rectify this.
- kakawait 5y ago
  I'm come from France
  - binkHN 5y ago
    This should be sorted now! Thank you!
- zubi 5y ago
  I'm an introvert from Turkey.
  - binkHN 5y ago
    Added! Please give this a few hours to be effective.
  - xeromal 5y ago
    This cracked me up. haha. Hey bro! I've always wanted to visit.

Freeboots 5y ago

Puts me in mind of an assistant buying birthday gifts for the bosses kids, and the boss has no idea what gift 'they' gave, or even who/when.

inawarminister 5y ago
Always made me curious why the boss don't request daily/weekly summaries of what their assistants did for the kids. Would be easy enough with an app we control, I think?
hungryforcodes 5y ago
You can customize it for your friends.

brushfoot 5y ago

Yuck. If interacting with me is such a chore that someone has to automate it, I'd rather not hear from them. People don't want to be your duties. They want to be your pleasures. This changes messages from "I felt like talking to you" to "my scheduled trigger fired; please start a conversation so I can check you off my checklist." If I found out someone were using this to communicate with me, I'd frankly cut them out of my life -- not out of hatred, but because I'm not a sadist. If it's tedious for you to talk to me, I don't want to cause you that pain.

fastball 5y ago
I feel like you're conflating the friction of starting a conversation with the friction of continuing one, which can be very different things.
- trutannus 5y ago
  Most of the negative views on this app appear to fundamentally misunderstand how highly introverted people socialize. I know several highly introverted people. Having something automatically start a conversation for them which they can then engage in themselves would be very helpful. Especially for people who have social anxiety. My take was never that this app was going to socialize for you, but rather would initiate conversations for you which you could then finish yourself. There's nothing wrong with doing that...
  - jbuhbjlnjbn 5y ago
    What an interesting point. I highly value your opinion. -this message was created by an automated bot
- brushfoot 5y ago
  There's no friction in starting something you love to do. If you don't love talking to someone that you don't have to talk to, you shouldn't do it. You're putting them in the awkward position of having to converse with someone that they know doesn't want to converse with them. And yes, they'll know. The dryness of the sample messages is tip-off enough. Personally, I hate hearing from people like this -- not because I dislike them or they bore me, but because I'm not a sadist. I don't like the pain and boredom that I sense they're experiencing in trying to force themselves to talk to me out of duty. There are other ways to connect with people besides conversation. As the Fred Rogers song goes, "There are many ways to say I love you....There's the singing way....Cleaning up a room can say I love you; hanging up a coat before you're asked to do it; drawing special pictures on the holidays; and making plays." That will look different for an adult than a child, but the principle still applies.

fouc 5y ago

Is the link broken or app is down? It redirects to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.mtc.ga https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.mtc.ga And shows "We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server."

binkHN 5y ago
I'm sorry, but the app is currently in beta and limited to 88 countries/regions to better support this. Please let me know what country you are in so that I may rectify this.
- afbpinheiro 5y ago
  Can you make it available to Portugal? I would love to give it a try
  - binkHN 5y ago
    Done! Please give this a few hours to be effective!
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

Graffur 5y ago

This is not healthy. Instead the friends should realise that their introverted friends won't always be in contact but that does not change the relationship.

szundi 5y ago

The moment someone realizes you are using this, you may be seen as someone fake. Never let it happen.

smnrchrds 5y ago
I never remember people's birthdays, so I have added them to my calendar, and I make sure to message people to wish them a happy birthday when I get the calendar notification. Does this make my happy birthday wishes fake? Should I never let anyone realize I use a calendar?
- asteroidbelt 5y ago
  You may care about someone but forget their birthday exact date one day ahead. But you care someone and forget to send a message any day during the month? That’s not possible, that means you don’t really care.
  - GrinningFool 5y ago
    I've been hearing people equate forgetting with not caring for my entire life. It took me years to realize that they - and you - just can't conceive of someone who's mind operates in a way so fundamentally different from their own. So they put their values onto us, and blame us for not living up to them. I don't blame you - that level of empathy is a hard thing to find - but damn am I tired of hearing this.
    - cco 5y ago
      Not trying to be judgmental here, just trying to get your take. But if one of your close friends got cancer and died a few months later, would you ever get to say goodbye to them? Given the other descriptions in this thread, it seems like you wouldn't unless they or someone they were close to reached out to you to let you know. If that was the case and I was your friend and I died with zero contact from you, I would have to strongly consider that you do not care about me and were not there for me as a friend when I needed it the most. That is how I would feel about it, but I'm curious if what I describe is a fair hypothetical and how you think about that situation.

HPsquared 5y ago

I was going to question whether this is really an "AI" application but, given its function - mimicking a human - it literally is artificial intelligence.

shepherdjerred 5y ago

Relationships-as-a-service?

tomaszs 5y ago

I think your application is awesome. Also, that some people here in comments are offensive and don't understand really what being an introvert is about. Your application can help not only introverts, but also people who are isolated, depressed, who struggle to regain social connections after last months. Thank you for that. You put a lot of effort in the app and it works great. It is one of the best ideas and implementations I have seen in five years. Congrats again! It is far beyond my imagination how positive impact your project can have for millions of people!

binkHN 5y ago
Wonderful words of encouragement! Thank you! I realize some people might see this differently, but, at the end of the day, I did what works best for me and felt others could benefit as well.

ShaneMcGowan 5y ago

I can't decided if automated "love you" messages is dystopian af or cute

brutal_chaos_ 5y ago
Intent is the distinguishing factor, IMHO. If I'm using this because I really do wish to reach out more, I see no harm. It's like riding a bike to get somewhere, it helps you get where you want to be, just a little faster. If apps start to doing this on their own, because AI, then we've got a problem...
- ShaneMcGowan 5y ago
  Relationship as a Service

impreciouschild 5y ago

I think the consequences of being introverted, asocial, hesitant, distracted etc are part of regular interaction. Just because we can be connected with 10k people doesn't mean we should be. We also don't currently have the capacity for broadband bidrectional intimacy. The way parasocial relationships have bloomed is owed to infinite friend lists. Also, people gravitate towards what is meaningful for them. I think that some people find it meaningful to feel that they're disconnected. I think that loss and disconnection is a part of life, and while I admire efforts to connect, we have limits. I think it's important for those (and this includes myself) who are asocial to acknowledge this aspect of themselves and accept the consequences of their persona. Last, I think that scripted or automated interactions inherently devalue interactions. A huge part of having relationships lies in the effort to connect. This is why "Welcome to Costco, I love you" is a joke. It also neatly defines the flawed scope of this app. Because of that, I declare that this is a CRM app, not a real life relationship app.

neilv 5y ago

This seems less a tool for introverts, than for sociopaths.

pelagicAustral 5y ago

Introvert, has gf... next.

asteroidbelt 5y ago

You are not introvert, you are sociopath. And this app will “help” people stay this way instead of learning to connect. This app is cheating. It is like telling your friends you baked a cake while you bought it. I’d be disappointed if someone was using it with me. Would be OK if they warned me upfront, though.

dang 5y ago
We've banned this account. You can't attack others like this on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- asteroidbelt 5y ago
  Fair enough. But I can still post comments?
  - dang 5y ago
    Banned accounts can still post comments, but their comments are killed by default - that is, they're marked as [dead] and only users with 'showdead' turned on in their profile can see them. If enough users vouch for a [dead] post, it gets restored. But why not read the site guidelines and take the intended spirit of this site to heart instead? We're happy to unban accounts when people give us reason to believe that they'll follow the rules in the future. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - asteroidbelt 5y ago
      Hey dang, thank you for the comment and the explanations. I'm obviously overreacted, I'll try to avoid comments like that in the future.
      - dang 5y ago
        Ok, I've unbanned your account. Please stick to the guidelines in the future and all should be fine :)

evrenesat 5y ago

Something related; I wish "Let's chat, call me when you are available" button for Whatsapp,Telegram etc. Or even better, ability to suggest a few time slots to the callee. That might help with not being able to write "hey my friend, I miss you. Let's chat sometime" messages and unable to decide on that "sometime". An app with SMS/phone calls wouldn't work well for me as most of my friends are in another country so it needs to be VoIP.

xeromal 5y ago

OMG, dude, this has been sitting in my TODO ideas document for a few years. I'm so excited to try it out. Thank you!

_lex 5y ago

I use SKEDit to achieve this functionality today on my android phone. It works with phone calls, sms, whatsapp and emails. It's really cool when it activates - it literally will pull downthe search bar, type in 'whatsapp' to select the app, launch the app, search for the contact I told it to message, tap on them to message them, and type in the message I had automated - and you can just watch and follow along as it does all this. V awesome if you have social anxiety, a poor memory, a busy schedule, or all of the above.

stevage 5y ago

"sending 'i love you' once a day" - ewww. I would hate anyone that did that to me.

2easy 5y ago

Have you tried? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uhabits&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.isoron.uha... It is enough for me to manage many relationships.

pengaru 5y ago

introvert != self-absorbed

thunkshift1 5y ago

Cool app! Is the data of the contacts stored locally or on your servers?

binkHN 5y ago
Thanks! Data is stored locally in a SQLite database.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

smsm42 5y ago

I'm not sure I'd like to get a message from a friend that was actually written by an automated app. As an introvert, I am ok with people being silent friends with me for a while. But somebody started bombarding me with automatically scripted messages which they didn't personally write and meant to send then and there - if that was a close friend, I'd ask what's wrong with them and whether I can help to fix it, because certainly if it'd be ok they'd never do something so bizarre. Otherwise I'd probably just sigh and block them. Sorry, I don't mean it as a personal criticism towards you, if it works for you and your friends, all power to you. Just expressing another view on this topic.

jbuhbjlnjbn 5y ago

I mean no hostility or disrespect when I say this. It is astonishing so many people commenting in this thread cannot see the giant, glaring issue with such a disingenious app. Everyone no seeing an issue should for his/her own sake do a sociopathy/psychopathy test to check.

asr21 5y ago

I am introvert but this has never been a problem for me. I have gotten addicted to social media. So when I feel bored.. I call and message my friends .

bobiny 5y ago

Wannabe psychologists and communication experts trying to teach others how they should talk to people. Prerecorded messages are fake and people using this app are sociopaths. Judgemental much? I say author and anybody like him in this matter can communicate however they want.

cphoover 5y ago

I don't think AI generated spam is going to help your relationships... Sorry dude