Why do I have to make a app for mom as a Christmas present?

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Published in the Medium, author Kevin Xu, a Chinese-American living in the United States. This article describes how he used his IT skills to send his mother a unique Christmas gift-a mom-specific chat APP.

Sometimes my mom is really annoying. In fact, my mother and I have a good relationship, but every time I call her, she always endless to ask some have no, annoying the person. Basically she asks is some life the trivial matter, every time she chats the topic all lets the person cannot help to turn the supercilious eye, very wants to direct the telephone to hang off.

Like most "tech houses", whenever I encounter an unresolved problem, my first response is to ask Google. So I googled it.

As a result, I found a blog, the content is a mother to netizens to help. She felt that her nagging about her daughter really bothered her daughter, but she didn't know what to do.

To my surprise, most of the suggestions were children, not mothers. One of the comments attracted my attention:

I wish my mother would nag me again.

I do not know why, this sentence has remained in my mind. It keeps reminding me that one day my mother will be gone--and then I'll be willing to end it all in exchange for my mom's nagging again. Exhausting everything.

So I started trying to do something and told my mom that I still loved her, even though we didn't live together. I started to give her as much phone or video as I could, and I would respond and smile even if she asked a question that was really annoying (but just like treating her as any ordinary person in life: patience, smile). I even give her a lot of self-portraits because sometimes I wonder when my mother last saw me look like. Probably a few months ago. You know, in the first 18 years of my life, she sees her kids every day. From "Every day" frequency to "every few months", this is not a small gap.

The picture is my two birthday. My mom likes to take some old pictures that I've washed out before and send them to me.

Mom dedicated APP

My mom just bought an iPhone recently, so I was thinking, I could do something more. I decided to make my mom a "mom-specific" app, a app that I could only chat with.

I had been learning about IOS for months and the Swift language, and I knew the most effective way to learn something was to use it to do something. Thanks to the Layer SDK, it's much simpler to do an information-like APP now than it used to.

I want this APP to do three things:

Easier communication: 1 to 1 instant chats with read notifications and point-and-click Features. I don't mind the "read receipts" feature if it's my mom. And the point of praise is a lightweight, can give each other a sense of satisfaction of the "response."

Security, and Security: limited site-sharing capabilities. It gives my mom a sense of security, at least knowing that her son is alive ... In addition, I can let my mother know whether I am at home or out today.

Filtered memory sharing: Usually my memories are saved by photos, geographic location and the level of push I've sent. I wish I could share a lot of my good memories with my mom, but I also want to be able to sift through it, not everything is suitable for sharing with my mom. So I thought about this Tinder way of interacting, every state and photo of me can generate a small card, I can slide to the left or to the right to decide whether to share with my mother.

Yesterday I gave this app to my mom and she immediately gave me a video from Dad's cell phone and asked me to teach her how to use the app. Mom was happy. Her iPhone's first screen has an app that opens up and chats with her son. And every time I use this APP, she knows I'm thinking about her.

Of course, while technology can improve something, it's always best to talk to your family face-to-face. So tomorrow I will go home and spend the holidays with my family.

Merry Christmas, everyone!