This App Lets You Leave a Message for Your Future Self

Back to the Hereafter fans will recall that Marty McFly wrote a letter to Md Brown in 1955, with instructions not to open up it until 1985, a motion Doc later borrowed when he was zapped into 1885. Wouldn't it be smashing if you could provide your hereafter self with a similar heads-up about upcoming events?

Futurospective That exact scenario is not (yet) possible, just it was the inspiration for software developer Sten Pittet and his Futurospective app (Android, iOS). Information technology lets you lot record a video to yourself and set a virtual time lock; it'll ping you to spotter via push notification sometime in the future—a week, three months, a twelvemonth. With an eye on privacy, you lot don't create a Futurospective account; videos are stored on your phone (which means yous'll lose your future letters if you get a new phone).

PCMag tracked down Pittet in Lisbon, Portugal, to ask him a few questions virtually building Futurospective, and how working in tech has taken him from Europe to Australia via Africa.

Sten, firstly tell us how yous came upwardly with the thought of Futurospective?
Well, I'd recently quit my job to start my ain business organisation and, to be honest, it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, so I thought that maybe I could tackle the whole confidence issue in a new way, and encourage myself "from the future." Information technology does audio a flake weird saying that, just it worked.

What was the get-go "future-Sten" video missive?
I recorded a brusk video telling me to trust myself. That information technology was okay to experience down and it's role of the process.

Nice stress-avoidance tool. Simply let's reference the fab DeLorean graphic on your app - which sets it apart from other ping-me apps. Do yous call back where and when yous showtime saw Dorsum to the Futurity?
Futurospective [Laughs] Wow, that takes me back, no pun intended. I definitely thought that the DeLorean would exist a great imagery for the application, but I can't tell you when I saw the movie for the first time. I just really liked the concept [from the motion picture] of beingness able to get talk to yourself in a different era. When I was a child I wanted to write a letter that I would open up when I get erstwhile, to make sure that I don't get likewise serious.

Y'all kept the awarding super simple: it's complimentary to utilize, there'due south no user business relationship, data stored locally, no remote server sync. Conspicuously this is a 18-carat geek-to-geek offering, not a potential business, right?
Exactly. I wanted to go on things elementary, including the maintenance of information technology. By making everything local on your telephone I got rid of a lot of problems that I would accept had to solve with a centralized server.

Like privacy?
Yes, privacy being the get-go one that comes to mind as it'south near recording private thoughts. It was important for me to make sure that information would be safe while also minimizing the work on my side. This project was more of a fun mode for me to get dorsum into coding to sharpen my skills for my new venture. I actually enjoyed that as a pause from things, and I as well enjoy a lot learning about new technologies. I all the same pulled some pilus on some problems, though. React Native is really cool but the Javascript ecosystem is moving so fast that it'south hard to go on up with things.

In fact you posted on Medium about building a fresh React Native app in just 37 days. What's the biggest piece of communication y'all'd give to someone about to practice something similar?
I've been listening to a few podcasts lately, and there'southward ane in particular between DHH and Tim Ferris that had some interesting insights: your happiness is defined past your expectations rather than your achievements. In my case things got ameliorate when I accepted the fact that I'd exist spending a few weeks just trying to sympathize the framework instead of being able to go a working app within a couple days. If you're going to build an app from scratch using a technology that you haven't used earlier my best advice is to accept the initial struggle and to change your estimates accordingly.

As an open source advocate, you published the app'southward lawmaking hither—and your projection planning on Trello. Has anyone jumped in to interact or use the concept for some other app?
Not yet, merely I'one thousand hoping that the code will help some people to solve their own issues. I've had some people reaching out directly via the Medium mail service to chat about my experience then I feel like information technology was worth it. I really want to notice more ways to contribute back to the community, [because] there's and so much that you can get out there for free!

Allow's dorsum up a bit, I'g calling you in Lisbon, but you were educated in Paris, ran a spider web agency in Cameroon, and worked equally a production managing director for an enterprise software giant in Sydney for 5 years. A global nomad indeed. What brought yous to Lisbon?
My wife—who is Australian—and I had a babe boy, most 2 years ago, and Europe is a big role of my culture. I was built-in in Paris, and and so grew up Republic of cameroon. Portuguese settlers arrived in Cameroon in the 1500s and so there's an influence at that place too, and Lisbon seemed a bang-up way to share that side of me with them. Plus we really wanted to travel while our son is young; before he gets to schoolhouse-age.

Fala português?
I've been happily surprised by how easy it is to get by hither. I don't speak Portuguese yet merely nigh people accept an excellent level of English and they're extremely welcoming. I still really want to learn the language and fit in. The city is changing fast though, and I'm seeing lots of digital nomads and expats moving here. I just hope that the civilisation doesn't endure too much equally a upshot.

Talking of culture, your curated playlists on Spotify "aim to bridge cultures through music." Tell usa what are you're listening to at the moment and does it assist when working?
I've been listening to some African Jazz and Funk from the 70s lately, Hailu Mergia is pretty smashing. I likewise have a weird obsession with an Australian musician called Jordan Rakei. I really enjoy listening to music when I piece of work every bit it helps to isolate myself from the racket outside and focus.

What'southward next for you?
The new venture that I'g focusing on is a platform for team analytics called Squadlytics. It's in private beta right at present. We're extending our integrations and testing pricing models right now every bit a Software as a Service product; probably freemium with some tiered extras.

What was the inspiration behind Squadlytics?
There are many tools out there that are used to build a business but frequently times these tools exist in isolation. Yous accept to go from one platform to the other to empathise if you lot're on the right track. With Squadlytics we want to simplify that and provide insights to assist you empathise your team'due south action and place bottlenecks. Basically we want to provide a full general overview of your "team health."

Useful stuff, especially in this age of remotely distributed teams.
It's all based on my experience of doing just that, and I wanted to share it with others to be helpful. People need to keep a pulse on what's going on without tapping into lots of different tools.

What's information technology built in?
It's much more than complex than Futurospective. The front-end is a React app, dorsum-end is in Rails with a few other services which talk to Trello, Github, Jira, etc. Essentially it plugs into the APIs of all those other products and presents it in an attractive, and useful, dashboard as a single view.

When is it going live?
Q1, 2022 is the plan for the public launch. Right now, we have a few beta customers giving us not bad feedback to help united states of america build the correct production. The beta is individual for now but we will open up it up soon. It's been actually helpful to be in Lisbon every bit I've met some corking people that helped me with this project. I've been working out of 2d Dwelling, a co-working space that feels much more than like a startup than a desk-renting space. Every Friday at that place'southward a mingling event and so you can notice out what other people are working on; we fifty-fifty have a live DJ! Both this, and Futurospective, are tech ideas which improve people'southward lives, in some way.

It'south important for me to have a adept work/life remainder. I'm a father now, with have another i on the way and anything that makes life smoother is a good thing, right? [Laughs]