A Bloemfontein-based company has designed an app that effectively brings you SMSes and e-mails from beyond the grave.
Launched this week, the Mangifa app allows users to set up SMSes and e-mails that are automatically sent out to their loved ones when they pass away. This allows users to share bank account numbers, insurance details, or will and testament information, after their death.
According to Quixotek Development Studios MD Senzo Malinga, the app asks a user to register with his or her ID number, which then gets checked against the Department of Home Affairs' database either daily, weekly or monthly, according to user preference.
"If it detects that you are deceased, all your pre-specified SMSes and e-mails get sent automatically," he says. "We use an SMS and e-mail application programming interface that allows us to send the messages in the background, after we have detected that the user is deceased."
Malinga says the home affairs database is freely available online and, according to his knowledge, it takes approximately a week for a deceased person to be registered as such.
He says while users may be wary of security risks involved with making their personal information available, there is no risk. "Everything is stored locally on the phone. We don't collect any of your data."
Unfortunately, this means that should your phone get stolen or you change phones, your registration will no longer be active and you would have to download and re-register your ID number with your new phone. "We are looking at the possibility of a mobile Web version to counter this problem."
Malinga says the company originally wanted to call the app "When I die", but decided this was a bit too morbid. The name, Mangifa, is the Zulu translation for "when I die".
"At the moment, the app only sends SMSes and e-mails, but for the next version we want to add video and voice."
He says the idea for the app came when a friend's daughter passed away and her mother struggled financially, because she did not have the necessary information to access her accounts. He notes that he doesn't know the amount of downloads just yet, but believes the app is an effective and inexpensive way to overcome this hurdle.
The free version of the Mangifa app is now available for download on the Google Play store. A paid-for version will soon be launched that includes Facebook and Twitter updates after your death and an unlimited number of contacts for receiving messages.
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