Pawmise: Daily Check-in

One tap a day to say "I'm here." A gentle check-in for two people who live apart: hand-drawn companions, voice notes, and no reply needed.

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Inspiration

We are sisters who grew up together, and now we both live in the United States. But the US is big: it takes six hours to fly from New York to Los Angeles. To stay connected while minding our own lives, we share reels a few times a week. One sends a reel, the other reacts with an emoji. That's our way of knowing "she's having a good life out there."

Our grandma lives much farther away, in China, our homeland. She's 81 and says she's too old for long flights or a new country. We call and text, but sometimes she misses them, and it feels really bad when she does.

This summer, one of us visited Grandma and taught her to use a senior health watch. She tried hard, but even that was too complicated. With tears running down, the thought was simple: is there something really easy to use? Something that lets us know Grandma is okay, and lets her know she just missed a call from Mom this morning?

With that thought, Pawmise was born.

There are always people we think about every day but don't talk to every day: a parent living alone, a friend far away, a sibling having a rough time. Sometimes we just want to know they're there, but we can't always ask. They might be busy, or "Are you okay?" feels like a bigger question than we meant.

Daily check-in apps already exist, but we wanted ours to feel a little more relaxed, a little more personal, and a little more connected to the person you care about.

What it does

Pawmise creates a Circle that connects two people: one Companion and one Keeper.

The Companion taps once a day to say "I'm here." When they do, they might hear a short greeting the Keeper recorded for them. The Keeper sees the check-in and can leave a voice note if they want. If it were our mom and grandma's Circle, Mom's greeting might be, in Chinese: "Check if you missed any of my calls. If you did, that's okay, I already saw your check-in. Just don't miss the next one."

We deliberately left out the reply button. You can listen and go on with your day. Your check-in already lets them know you've been there.

Features

  • One-tap daily check-in with a hand-drawn animal companion
  • Voice notes and a greeting recorded in the Keeper's own voice
  • Private pairing with a six-digit code: no account, no public feed
  • Gentle reminders and a large text mode chosen during onboarding
  • Clear check-in times: "Checked in · 8:32 AM"
  • Solo mode, because taking care of ourselves matters too

Monetization

The most important features (daily check-ins, pairing, and recent voice notes) are completely free.

Premium is a one-time $4.99 purchase, with no subscription and no trial. It unlocks the full check-in calendar, special dates, a shared timeline, 30 days of voice history, custom greetings, and outfits for your companion.

One purchase covers both people, because someone like our grandma shouldn't have to figure out an in-app purchase.

How we built it

We're a team of two, and we built Pawmise in about two weeks. We split the work across app design, backend, drawing the animals and outfits, animations, and App Review, and we kept checking in on each other so we faced the hard parts together.

  • Expo / React Native for the iOS app
  • API server and PostgreSQL database hosted on Replit
  • RevenueCat for the one-time purchase, with server-side verification so either person's purchase unlocks Premium for the whole Circle
  • Expo push notifications for check-in reminders and new voice notes
  • All companion art and outfits hand-drawn by our team

Challenges we ran into

One purchase had to work for two people on two devices, even after a reinstall, so Premium couldn't live only on the buyer's device. After several tries, we moved the entitlement checks to our server, so either person's purchase unlocks Premium for the whole Circle.

App Review also helped us catch a purchase issue: our production backend only accepted production purchases, but Apple's reviewers test with sandbox purchases. We updated the backend to handle both environments and fixed it without submitting a new build.

Accomplishments we're proud of

We went from an idea to a complete app submitted to the App Store in about two weeks, just the two of us, learning the whole process from zero. We wanted the app simple, friendly for all ages, and still warm and colorful, and we're glad we found that balance. One tap to check in, one tap to hear someone's voice, and one person knows you thought of them.

What we learned

We spent more time than expected on word choice and trade-offs. "They're fine" sounds reassuring, but a tap can't tell us that. A reply button seems useful, but it can make someone feel they have to answer. We did research, asked people questions, and put ourselves in others' shoes. Those small choices shaped the app, and taught us to pay attention to what each interaction asks of both people.

What's next

Multiple Circles, so people can use Pawmise with more than one person they care about. More regions and more languages, so that our grandma, and others with similar needs, can use it too.

Peace Prize

You can care about someone and still go days without talking. Maybe your parents live alone, or your friend is in another city. You think of them, but you don't always call. Life gets busy, tiring, or just hard. After a long day, you may not know what to say, or you just want to hear from them without turning it into a whole conversation.

That's the small space we made Pawmise for.

The Keeper leaves a voice note: a reminder, a good morning, anything they want to share. The Companion taps to say "I'm here." There's no reply button, so the person listening doesn't need to find the words or the energy to answer.

We built it for adult children and aging parents, long-distance friends, and people living alone. The peace we hope to contribute is small and everyday: hearing a familiar voice, knowing someone thought of you, and being able to return that care when you have more energy. Taking care of each other is a long-term thing, and we want to make it simple.

Design Award

We designed Pawmise around one small interaction: open the app, tap once, and carry on with your day. We thought about how it would feel on a day when someone is tired, distracted, or doesn't feel like talking.

  • Hand-drawn companions. We drew the four animals and their outfits ourselves, to give a daily check-in warmth and personality.
  • No reply button. One person leaves a voice note, the other checks in. That's enough.
  • Honest wording. "Checked in · 8:32 AM" says what happened. We never label someone "fine" based on a tap.
  • Simple, private pairing. A six-digit code. No account, no public feed, no location tracking.
  • Readable for everyone. Large tap targets and a large text mode offered during onboarding.
  • Room for a little fun. Animal expressions, outfits, and a special-dates calendar give people something to enjoy when they come back.

We wanted someone to open Pawmise and feel that a person was thinking of them. Every part of the design comes back to that feeling.

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