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Idea

Service that records thoughts you want to say to your future self and plays it when scheduled

Image credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-rectangular-mirror-2112733/

jnikola

jnikola Feb 28, 2022

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Idea
Service that:
records voice and text messages that your future you should hear
plays them when scheduled
Why?
For fun (it would be entertaining to hear what you thought as a 14, 20, or 35-year-old)
To remind your future self of the things that should be valued or not forgotten (remind yourself after 30 years of marriage of the feeling at the beginning of the relationship)
To remind yourself of things when you start forgetting due to a disease or a trauma 
To track progress on certain topic, field or emotions about someone
How would it work?
Input
You would simply call or send an SMS, WhatsApp, Viber message to a number of the service that records your thoughts and saves it in your account. You could also use the app to directly write your thoughts in.
Output
At the end of every message or a voice call, you should decide when should it be returned to you. It could be sent to you:
on a specific date and time
more generally - a specific year or month
after a certain time
on the location where you want to be reminded (you need to allow location tracking of the app for this; could also work as smart reminders)
randomly
when some other parameter that can be tracked by the service gets fulfilled
Existing solutions
There is a company that allows you to send your future self a letter, which is the closest it gets (I think). There is another project that aims to create the future version of your self in a form of an avatar and enables you to talk to yourself, but is far from the real deal.
What else would you use this for? How would you make it better?

communication future startup ideas

3

Creative contributions

An Option to Record Messages for Family and Friends

Oguntola Tobi

Oguntola Tobi Mar 04, 2022

I like this idea. I used to journal and one of my favorite things about it is how I can, in future, revisit those moments in time. I think it'll be great if I can record specific messages for specific future versions of myself.

My suggestion:

This app (or service) should have an option for users to forward their recorded messages to other people, too. Imagine if your significant other (or very close friend) did something that amazed (or depressed) you, you can record a message for their future self telling them how much you love and appreciate them. Or how frustrating they were.
On one side, it can help you (and them) remember what you love about their person so they feel encouraged to continue in that vein. Alternatively, such a feature will encourage self-reflection on said person's part. Like "Hmmm, do I still exhibit this behavior? How well have I improved since this scenario? Etc." so that they can work better at it.

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You can't re-listen, edit or delete the message once you've started recording it

Povilas S

Povilas S Mar 04, 2022

I think it might be more interesting if there was no option to relisten to the message before sending, edit, delete it, etc. Or at least this could be one possible option for the braver ones/those preferring spontaneous messages. 
It would be a one-time deal and once you've started recording, it would be sent once you've finished recording. And then it would be no way you could hear it earlier than the date you've indicated, the service should make sure of this. If you've f*ked up during the recording process, this would also be a funny thing to listen to your future self. 
The date of delivery should then better be indicated before the recording, for the users to not try to cheat after and indicate a proximate date if something they perceive as failed recording attempt happened.
This could possibly be applied to writing as well, e.g. you couldn't go back and fix the text, but it's way easier and better with sound or video recordings, it would be like those voice message recording functions of texting apps where you hold the button for as long as you talk and once you release it the recording is sent and you can't undo it, it brings more spontaneity and liveliness to the process.

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jnikola

jnikola2 years ago

Nice! I imagine people having a lot of fun with these recordings. But one thing needs to be defined before designing the app. If used for casual reminders, messaging on exact date or sending timed birthday greetings, this could work. On the other hand, if the app is intended for professional use, business organizers, faster reminder settings, meeting alerts, psychological improvement or anything similar, I think the high noise due to failed recordings could be a minus. Then we should probably aim for short, easy-to-use, high signal solutions.

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Povilas S

Povilas S2 years ago

J. Nikola I thought that the idea is mostly about sending insightful (wisdom, etc.) messages to your future self, not the practical ones, for practical ones, perhaps calendar apps are more suitable. 
Instant recording would fit for the insightful messages, since you'd simply talk to yourself, having something to say that you consider important at that time. When you have something important to say, you usually don't hesitate too much and don't try to polish your words, it's like calling someone and just saying it, you might stumble a bit with words here and there but convey the essence one way or another since you already decided to do it.

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jnikola

jnikola2 years ago

Povilas S I agree with you, non-polished way of saying things always seems more natural. That doesn't mean we should not be careful about our words (the same as with conversations with others), but I understand what you want to say. 

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The last will call - future funeral organisation

jnikola

jnikola Mar 17, 2022

An idea
Similar to what Oguntola Tobi proposed here, I would like to use this service to send a message to loved ones or anybody else when I die. This message would not be the alternative to the will, but would be set to be sent to companies that handle flowers, funeral, band, notify colleagues, ... basically everything that the family does for the one who passed away. That way you could organise your own funeral in forward! 
Backstory
I was recently on a funeral of my mother's aunt. She was a singing teacher, very popular among her students, collegues and musician societies of my country. However, her kids and grandsons didn't contact any of the institutions, faculties or school where she worked to notify them about her death. They chose to bury her in a small village close to them since it was the cheapest solution. The funeral was very fast, with barely 10 people, including her. Not only that her students and colleaguesprobably wanted to say the last goodbye, but hey would most likely sing it to her forever home - and she would definitely loved and appreciated it! If only she could handle all these organisational things instead of her family! 
Your last wishes could not come true if you don't handle them for yourself.

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Spook Louw

Spook Louw2 years ago

I was looking for a similar idea to allow people to record messages for their loved ones after they have passed that had been posted earlier, but I cannot find it right now. Basically, such a service would act as a database for these messages, and messages could be accessed from something like QR codes on or near the gravestones/remembrance walls/ urns. 
This would allow people to leave a pre-recorded last message to the world and their loved ones in their own voice. 
I will update this comment with a link to the idea once I find it. 

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General comments

Povilas S

Povilas S2 years ago

So basically the service you envision here already exists, I'm talking about that letter to the future website you linked. It's cool actually, I've checked it. And the only novel improvement you propose is to enable voice and video recordings, is that right?

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jnikola

jnikola2 years ago

Povilas S Yes yes, I checked it and found it really interesting, but not very useful. It serves only as a mailing service on an exact date or after a certain period. 
As I described in "How would it work?" part, I imagine several improvements of the service. 
not just an email service, but Whatsapp, SMS, voice call, voice or a video recording, whatever can send a message and trigger certain emotions in your future you
random reminder data and time
location-triggered reminders (for example, by using AirTags) 
Also, I'll try to think of more new features or applications to make it more different than the existing solutions. 

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Darko Savic

Darko Savic2 years ago

I imagine some calendar apps could have a voice memo attached to specific dates. That could work

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jnikola

jnikola2 years ago

Darko Savic Great idea!

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