Dad Invents App That Locks Kids' Phone Until They Respond To Their Parents

It's hard to even imagine living without smartphones these days. If you look all around you, people are on their phones for all sorts of reasons. You can get most work done via your phones, and use it for a wide range of services. It has come to a point where we are almost always on our phones, checking it several times a minute. Of course, for teenagers, responding to calls from their parents is always an "oh-no" moment. Due to this, many parents find it difficult to get through to their children on call, and it's not like they're going to get an immediate callback.

Well, one dad decided to ensure that his kids always responded in time, so he went and did something ingenious. He created a brand new app called "ReplyASAP" which could be downloaded via the Google Playstore. This is pretty amazing, as the app actually renders a child's phone unusable under certain conditions. When that happens,  to "unfreeze" their Android phone, the child would have to return the phone call or message to the designated number in the app - either mom or dad, Metro reports.  The app also informs parents once the child has read the message.

The app will only work when both the parent and child have downloaded it. The creator of the app, Nick Herbert told PureWow that the app makes texts “unmissable between people that matter, since important messages shouldn’t be missed.” The app also ensures that the child sees the message immediately by sounding an alarm if the phone is on silent mode. WCNC reports that since launching in August 2017 on Google Play, ReplyASAP has been downloaded roughly 75,000 times. This app is available only to Android users for now and it's free. People who enjoy the app can unlock more functionalist on the software if they spend a few dollars. The app name has since been changed to RespondASAP on the play store.

"RespondASAP is a means for family members to ensure that their important and urgent messages are seen. With almost 20,000 downloads, RespondASAP has thousands of happy users. If you do happen to have any issues or questions, I also RespondASAP to your questions and will resolve any problems you may have with the app - so please email me at nick@respondasap.co.uk in the first instance. The app needs to be installed on the phones of two family members who wish to able to send urgent messages (ASAPs) to each other. Currently, it only works on Android, but we are looking to get it rolled onto iOS shortly," the description states.

Nick went on to write a detailed testimony of the app, its origins, and purpose. "Hi, my name is Nick This app was born out of personal frustrations with current messaging apps," he starts. "I have a son, Ben, who is at secondary school. When he started secondary school I bought him a smartphone so that I could contact him and he could contact me (obviously not while at school). However, what I thought was a solution turned into a different problem. Because the phone was 'smart', he could play games and watch videos on it. So invariably he keeps his phone on silent so I wouldn't know. As such when I try and contact him he rarely answers, either because he doesn't hear the phone, or because (and I've finally had to admit this to myself) he may be embarrassed to speak to his Dad in front of his friends."

"There are times that I need to get a message to him and he has no way of knowing that the call or text he ignores/doesn't see is important or not, and I have no way of knowing if he has seen it (and I mean really seen it and not just moved it so he can get on with his game). There are messaging apps that tell you when a message is delivered and seen, but the point is the message can be ignored or not seen because he didn't hear it. So, RespondASAP®, is my solution to this problem," he added.