It’s always nice, on special occasions, to send messages, photos, videos and greetings to those we care about, and although there are plenty of ways you can go about doing this – particularly in the Digital Age – a new iOS app by the name of TimeAppsule aims to put its own spin on proceedings. You sign up for your account, which takes a couple of seconds, and from there, you can plan your digital gifts to your friends and relatives up to a year in advance and keep them safely locked in the TimeAppsule (Geddit?) before sending.
Whether you wish to record a message for somebody’s birthday or simply create a surprise video of a new pet, your time-locked treasure can be kept in a secure location thanks to the TimeAppsule app, and when the date, as specified by you, eventually does arrive, it is then sent on its merry way.
The recipient is notified via email of the capsule when the time is right, but unfortunately, the only way it can be fully appreciated and checked out is if the other person decides to then go ahead download the app. This is somewhat problematic, and although it would work wonderfully if everybody had the app on their devices already, well, they don’t, and as such, the efforts could easily be misconstrued as spam.
If there was some kind of alternative means of consuming the TimeAppsule, such as a Web app, you feel that this idea stands a much greater chance of hitting the ground running, but even as is, it remains a pretty neat concept.
The designs for the capsules are pre-set, which is also something of a limitation, and at this point, TimeAppsule is only available for iOS, rather than Android as well. It does feel like the makers have a good idea on their hands, but are shooting themselves in the foot a little bit with these rather significant oversights, and with prices ranging from $0.99 for unlimited 24-hour access, running all the way up to $28.99 for a year, one would hope that an Android app – at the very least – is forthcoming.
(Download: TimeAppsule for iOS on the App Store)
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