Why Juhupost exists
I'm Thomas, father of an eight-year-old daughter and a passionate software developer for many years.
My daughter has her own tablet, which she mostly uses for learning. On holiday she made new friends and wanted to stay in touch with them afterwards. WhatsApp wasn't an option for us yet. She has no phone number of her own, and we were wary of bullying in group chats. Email was the obvious choice, and we already had our own domain.
A shield, not a reader
Nothing I looked at felt right. Either anyone could write to her, or I would have had to read everything. I wanted something in between. She should write to her friends, to whomever she likes, and that stays between them. But anyone she doesn't know has to get past me first.
I wanted to be a shield, not someone reading along.
Media education is our job
Introducing children to digital media is the job of us parents. No app does that for us. With Juhupost I want to contribute to it: children get to know email step by step, strangers can't reach them unasked, and they talk to us about strange mail.
From our family to the store
We talked about what it could look like as a family on many evenings, often late into the night. In the end it was clear: I would build the app myself. Friends I showed it to wanted it for their children too. That's how our family project became the app you can now find on Google Play.
More about me and my work at schiffler.eu.