Bestie

When people are in unfamiliar situations, sometimes texting a friend for guidance can help get you get back to your happy place.

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Inspiration

Many of my friends and family suffer from anxiety, and I've been told about their regrets of not leaving social situations out of fear of being impolite, making someone mad, or simply blanking on an excuse to do so. Negative interactions with people can take it's toll on a persons well-being, and there have been times my friends or myself have needed a "Bestie" to bail us out of certain situations like leaving a date or getting out of a dinner. Sometimes people don't have the support they need in the moment to maneuver their social lives properly. With the Bestie chat-bot, I aim to give people a card up their sleeve to never fear being stuck in an uncomfortable social situation again.

What it does

Bestie sends automated SMS messages that can be used as excuses to leave a social setting. The message themes range from serious to mild favors Bestie will ask of the user. If the user sends anything other than the numbers pertaining to the message menu then, Bestie will send mental health resources to the user to enforce Besties effort to reach out and help.

Text Bestie: +1(805)-422-7783

How we built it

First the chat-bot was programmed using Twilio. Then the website was created on domain.com and the graphics were created on Adobe Spark. All mental health references were placed in the Sources webpage.

Challenges we ran into

A large portion of my time was spent learning how to use the Twilio interface so some functions had to be cut out. I ended up doing the front-end part using the domain.com interface due to time which gave me a lack of creative control because of the limits with CSS and HTML.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Using Twilio for hours made me confident in producing another chat-bot in the future. Working alone was a lot of effort but finishing my project and taking away a new skill was rewarding.

What we learned

A brand-new way to create a chat-bot, and how to manage productivity and expectations in a condensed amount of time.

What's next for Bestie

I'd like to expand Bestie to hold more options for conversion including mock conversations with preprogrammed responses. Also adding the option to receive phone calls, and to be able to set a time for the next call or text so the user can pre-emptively have an escape plan.

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