May 12, 2024
A Digital Lifeline
Washing the dishes post-dinner was not as meditative as it could have been. My brain fired off unanswerable questions: Had my son taken out the garbage? Did my husband remember that his dentist appointment had changed to 3pm instead of 1pm? What was the name of the place we had talked about visiting during the break? Was my daughter going on her trip this weekend or the next? Concerned with the increased volume of my unintelligent mutterings, Chetan spoke up. “Something the matter”? “Nothing” was my answer. Chetan knew, as usual, that “Nothing” contained multitudes.
Wrangling Our Chats
This was a breaking point of sorts. As parents of two teenagers (one of them about to fly the coop), there was a lot going on in our family life. Our overburdened kitchen whiteboard and the wall calendar weren’t cutting it. Over the next day or two, we came up with a system. Every “ToDo” any of us had on our minds, we’d just type it out into our Family group chat (which happened to be on WhatsApp). This would at least provide an inbox for the million thoughts that keep intruding while we’re trying to go through our day. A place to dump all of them without expending too much energy or (god forbid) having to create spreadsheets and documents on our computers. We could then try to corral that endless list into some sort of organization system that sort of worked.
But as was to be expected, this system had its limits too. Chetan’s phrase for the problem (one of his favorites) is that it was “non-scalable”. Despite the problems though, we really learned to love the group chat as the place to regulate the chaos in our life. It was always accessible. It was the one app that we all were guaranteed to pay attention to. We could mix our normal family messaging and picture sharing with the necessary business of running a family. It was an improvement over the status quo.
The problem was, all it gave us was a long scroll of indistinguishable text. There was life in the idea but it needed to be executed better for the purpose at hand. And that’s when the idea of FlaiChat began to crystallize. It wasn’t just about work either. A Family group chat had the potential to be so much more. A place to stay connected and strengthen our bonds, especially as the kids start getting older and enjoying their independent lives.
Using FlaiChat Today
Cut to 2024 and most of our family chat today is in FlaiChat. Only, it's much more than just chat. Instead of just writing some text in WhatsApp, I can send my son automated reminders with FlaiChat. This allows me to speak a language that he understands and appreciates. My now adult daughter has her own life in another city. The gap between our worlds could easily widen, but FlaiChat helps us bridge it. Our groupchat’s daily OnTheFlai notifications prompt us to send spontaneous photos or notes. I get a quick peek of her day like a lunch hour at her office or a quiet evening at home (I love that we can set it to prompt us at a random time during the day when we prefer it that way).
Planning family vacations used to be a daunting task with endless reviews to sift through. Now, my husband and I find ourselves discussing our next getaway over morning coffee. It’s refreshing to chat with the AI assistant (imaginatively named “FlaiBot”) about the weather in Maui or camping spots in Northern California or to bring up previous chats we have had on pet-friendly hotels. Plus, FlaiBot doesn’t judge me for asking, “Should we really take the kids with us?”
FlaiChat has grown to be more than just an app for us. It’s a part of our life as integral as WiFi or the coffee machine. It addresses our needs, helping us manage, share, and plan without it feeling intrusive. Perhaps more importantly, FlaiChat enhances our family bonds, keeping us linked through simple, everyday interactions that make up the fabric of our family life. Thank you FlaiChat (and yes, thank you Chetan).
