Smartphone is bad at being friends with You.
A recent research shares some troubling numbers: technology is seen as the detacher from the real world (67% of respondents), a distractor from living a more interesting life (58%), a contributor to burnout. You know this better than any numbers can tell.
AI is getting better at understanding You.
And by “You” we mean You.
And by “You” we mean You.
We believe, it’s time to rethink how smartphones work, how they shape us & how to befriend them.
Introducing:
a Phone,
a Friend.
a Phone,
a Friend.
And we’ve made a short video about it:
Oh, You are the reading type?
Fantastic, let’s do it step-by-step.
Fantastic, let’s do it step-by-step.
a Phone,
a Memory.
a Memory.
It will know You.
It’ll know all the content You’ve consumed and will recall anything You ask.
You will only give as much permissions, as You want. Text is strictly just between You and a Phone, a Friend, all Your data encrypted on device.
And it’ll also nudge You to do what You’ve forgotten.
We’re talking about the promise You made to Sebastian to send the list of Your favourite bars when visiting Rome, but never followed through. a phone, a friend will do that for You.
It will learn Your writing style through the keyboard and will be able to write exactly like You.
Talking ‘bout finishing each other’s sentences. You should think of it as Your personal Large Language Model.
a Phone,
a Curator.
a Curator.
It will help You.
It will know everything Your friends have posted online.
So even if You missed the fact that Emma’s just bought a dog, You’ll be in the loop. Imagine a personal tabloid magazine about what Your friends are up to.
Now let’s fight click-bait.
It will take all the juicy headlines that usually hide empty promises and distil them into comprehensive, clear-as-a-bell digestives that speak Your vernacular.
Have a business lunch with Tyrone? It’ll bring You up to speed.
And can brief You on the topics You’re about to discuss.
a Phone,
a Nurturer.
a Nurturer.
It will grow You.
It will augment Your productivity.
It will help You stick to the deadlines, plan a day, schedule meetings.
It will save You from doomscrolling.
Forget those never-ending videos with baby kangaroos.
It will sense when You are becoming stressful and gently indicate that.
Just observe this reddening line. It will provide the ways to calm down, or control the stress.
a Phone,
a Creator.
a Creator.
It, most surely, will entertain You.
Your Facebook friends posts become a podcast.
Full of inside jokes, or serious topics, a one of a kind personalised gossip talk show. Anything they do will be reported back to You in the voice You love, at the pace You like.
And the news will be digested to suit You.
Say, or click "more" while listening and the news piece will be expanded, "skip" means You'll jump to the next item and "less" means this topic is not for You. You won't be hearing it soon.
A partner in conversation, based on Your mood.
Whether You want some intellectual armwrestling, life-hacks, a cheer-up, or just a regular talking-it-out. Pick a desired mode and Your Friend will transform into a new role, better than Brad Pitt (well, ok, just as good).
a Phone,
a Body.
a Body.
It's got curves.
We have prototyped a pleasing smartphone body for Your future AI-friend to inhabit.
It should use an E ink screen, so it has a longer battery life, and consumes less energy. And maybe its shape could remind of a chat bubble.
What’s the deal with a single camera? Why not 6, 7, 8 of them? Because: check Your favourite photo camera. One, if good, will be enough, especially, when powered with AI editing tools. Your pics will turn out just fine.
Is it big? Is it handy? You know it is a prototype, yes? But we’ve got it measured anyways:
a Phone,
an OS.
an OS.
It befriends, adapts & augments You.
No, You won’t need to learn a new OS.
It will be extremely intuitive and AI superpowers will work along your be-loved apps. It will also have “a panic button”, so you can crawl back into an app mode, whenever you get overwhelmed by AI magic.
Swipe the screen, or hit the button on the side and move between two modes. Flow Mode is all you need, and App Mode when all is not enough.
A Flow mode is when Your Friend is taking care of everything: digests, conversation, entertainment.
Tap friends’ hand and You speak out Your needs, or start chatting with text (like in ChatGPT, but with the one who knows you).
Your Friend is proactive.
Your most loved items are one tap away in the Flow – a news and social digest, and a radio to entertain You. It always learns and adapts to Your usage habits. Click more, read longer, engage – Your friend will be taking notes.
No one reads “Terms & Conditions”, but everyone cares about privacy.
All the data You generate stays on device. It listens and watches to only what You allow it to do. Transparency of sources is crucial for You to trust Your emerging Friend. You will always have it at hand.
This is us. There’s a lot of us. There will be more of us.
Justė
Žiliūtė-Markevičė
Product designer
Irma
Rasikaitė
Front-End engineer
Dovydas
Stonkus
Graphic designer
Andrius
Kirvela
3D artist
Egidijus
Urbonas
Video editor
Jonas
Lekevičius
Think-team: Designer & a developer
Vykintas
Maknickas
Think-team: Product strategist
Aurelija
Petrauskytė Latakė
Think-team: Product creator
Karolis
Malcevičius
Think-team: Product designer
Sandra
Zaidova
Think-team: UX researcher
a Phone, a Friend co. aims to make the smartphone waaay friendlier, powered by AI.
The whole shebang you’ve just read is also a roadmap for building the world’s friendliest brain. Layer by layer we will introduce upgrades & breakthroughs to get us all there. First stop: a personalized AI radio for You. We’re working on that already, so turn on your transistors.
Roadmap
We have a clear steps on how we’ll be proceeding with our grand vision for a friendlier tech:
2024 Q2 –
a Radio, a Friend
An AI radio which adapts to whatever You dig & creates extremely customized audio content of news, digests, podcasts.
2024 Q3 –
a Memory, a Friend
It recalls of all the content you consume: provides summaries, contextualizes, expands your knowledge and points directly to the source.
2024 Q4 –
a Curator, a Friend
A very personal AI recommendation engine for restaurants, places, movies, experiences based on multiple sources & expressed in the ultimate score. Your score.
2025
a Friend keeps on learning from You & adds additional skill sets.
Be in the know about what we are up to:
You’ve scrolled all through, so it only seems appropriate to ask you to drop us a line.
Anything from “These are my thoughts” to “What is the price?”, from “I’ve had a similar idea!” to “Here’s how to make it better”.
We’ll do our best to reply as soon as humanly possible.