I Built an App for My Mom. Time to Share the Love
Thank you to every single one of you who read my previous post and reached out to share your stories. My mom said the emails, tweets and comments were better than the actual app (she even screen-shotted every message I showed her).
I wanted to hear more stories about other families, so I jumped on calls and began having conversations with children and parents alike about their family lives, their concerns, and how they communicate.
One story came from a daughter who was raised by her grandparents and left home early to attend a boarding school for high school. Now in college, she expressed a constant struggle between returning home to spend time with them and a desire to spread her wings and see the world.
Above all, however, the most common thing I heard was:
“I wish my family had something like that”
Building an App for Every Family
And that’s when I started thinking: what if the app for my mom was the beginning of a much bigger endeavor?
The thing is, whenever I think about interacting with family on Facebook, Twitter, or SnapChat it’s always… weird. It feels like I’m combining two disparate social worlds.
So what would a “family social network” look like then? Could there be a place where families can interact meaningfully with one another without it feeling forced?
I think there can be so I’m taking my mom app and working on making it public for everyone.
Presenting imHome
A Dedicated Messaging App for Your Family
imHome is a dedicated messaging app to make interacting with your families easier and happier.
I built an app for my mom because I wanted to communicate with her in a way that felt personal to her, and not annoying to me. imHome provides that same pleasant environment for your family, with features dedicated to making it easier to acknowledge one another, let parents know their children are safe, and passively share memories.
If this is something you want for your family, visit the website, and sign up with your email to get notified when we launch, and don’t forget to share it with family and friends! We’ll be posting updates as the app gets developed, so follow along on our Facebook and Twitter.☺
The Team
I’ve been gathering a team of passionate, family-oriented people who are excited to make this app a reality. Many thanks to Ammaar Reshi, Chelsea Wang, IHorng Ren Huang, Jon Miranda, Lily George, Pavel Nganpi, Stephen Dixon, and Tian-Yuan Zhao in joining me for the ride.
I also invite you to join us. We’re looking for talented iOS and Android developers and anyone with a passion for families. If you’re interested, please email me at kevin[at]imhomeapp.com.
My Mom
So how have things been with my mom? Visiting home was lovely and I spent a lot of time hugging and showing her how much I appreciate her. (It’s always the subtle things, like offering the last slice of cake when you know she’s going to refuse it. For her, it’s always the thought that counts).
Of course, when I got back to San Francisco we started using the app again and, well, moms will always be moms. ☺
Thanks to Jaime Kane, Chelsea Wang, and Tian Zhao for reading drafts of this.
