Unifai - Viaduct

Unifai Voice messenger application for informal communication at work

Messaging applications are very convenient, practical, and ideal for internal corporate correspondence. They are the perfect way to bring all team together, and have become one of the most popular media in recent years. Due to their high popularity, many companies and organizations are starting to develop and invest in messaging apps. These are computer programs that people interact with through voice, text or video calls.

Messengers literally burst into our lives, replacing email, SMS and even phone calls, because it is much easier and faster to write and receive a message. Moreover, with calls there is always a risk of being at the wrong time and distracting a person, and using messengers you will be able to answer when it is convenient for you. They are good not only for communicating with a family and friends, but also help to perfectly build effective communication with colleagues and clients. Messengers have wide functionality and different formats.

Challenge:

The Unifai company applied for Viaduct assistance to help them build a voice messenger application for informal communication at work via voice messages on a platform like Slack to solve the problem of relational capacity. Using this audio technology helps to build deeper trusting relationships between managers and employees, simulating the real-time environment and spontaneity that used to happen in the office, and allows leaders and managers to know when to have the right conversations with their employees. The creation of relational capacity as a defining characteristic of this product will help to establish trust, empathy and human relationships that are very difficult to develop in the virtual world.

Solution:

The creation of the Unifai application built on Slack was chosen as a solution to the problem. The product is a platform that lets users send direct short audio messages to others and receive a guaranteed response to them. The app provides a safe space for teams to create and maintain relational capacity in a work-from-anywhere (WFA) world.

The Unifai product is targeted at teams within a company up to 21 people. Leaders and managers can record their audio messages (Drop-Ins) to other team members in order to engage them into person-to-person interactions, keep in touch with teams virtually and maintain their mental health and personal empathic and trusting relationships within the company. All these interactions are challenging in a WFA environment of today’s virtual world.

Result:

The project was high-paced and strictly managed to meet the client’s requirements regarding the scope and timeline. Alpha version has been delivered on a strict timeline and within the initial cost estimate, with several fast-follow features released afterwards. The first real customer is currently using the app, which should result in valuable insight for further development.