Tired of your kids ignoring your phone call? Then install this new app

Kids who ignore parental texts and calls do so now at their own risk — the risk of having their phone effectively shut down for their use until they respond.

A new phone app, developed by a Dad in the United Kingdom who wanted contact with his teen, pesters another person’s phone until there is a response. The app is called “ReplyASAP” and is on initial release on Google Play. A free trial is available, according to the Google Play site, on Android with iOS App store expected later.

“I realize teenagers aren’t going to be massively keen but it is just supposed to be a fail-safe,” developer Nick Herbert said in the Economic Times.

ReplyASAP will put a message over whatever the other phone is doing, as well as make a noise until the user interacts with it. Users have the choice to cancel the alert or “snooze”; either way the sender gets a notification. The app should work even if the phone is on silent, but not if it is powered off, according to the Frequntly Asked Questions on the website.

According to www.replyasap.co.uk/#faq, the recipient can delete the app, but if he or she does then the originating phone is alerted.

Other apps can also track children’s phones, copy text messages to a parent’s phone, and other methods of spying on children’s electronic habits.

In 2014, a mom in Texas created “IgnoreNoMore,” an app that shut down a child’s cell phone if they didn’t answer her call.

Using IgnoreNoMore on Apple or Android can allow a parent to lock the child’s phone until the child enters a new passcode, given by the parent, Forbes Magazine reported.

“It takes away texting, it takes away the gaming, it takes away calling their friends. The child will always be able to call 911,” creator Sharon Standifird said.

Her son Bradley wasn’t so thrilled with it.

“Um, well I thought it was a good idea, but for other people, not me,” he told CBS news.

Herbert’s son, Ben, hasn’t been tested by his dad’s ReplyASAP app yet. Nick’s phone is compatible with the app, but Ben’s is not.

This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 8:28 PM with the headline "Tired of your kids ignoring your phone call? Then install this new app."