A new app allows your digital presence to communicate with loved ones after you've gone

Incubate is a new app which describes itself as a "time delay messenger".  The app allows you to programme messages be it text, video, or voice and dispatch them at scheduled times for up to twenty five years, keeping you on top of all important events and potentially extending your digital presence far beyond your physical one.

In contrast to the frivolous nature of  "now you see, it now you don't" communication tools such as Snapchat, Incubate tries to establish a greater permanence in digital interactions and perhaps a greater awareness of the content we send out.

In the short term, the app operates as a useful organisational aid, particularly for the over worked, those away on leave or the plain forgetful. It means there would be no excuse for forgetting birthday, anniversary or christmas well wishes for the next twenty five years. Notes and reminders to friends and colleagues can be scheduled as soon as arrangements are made to alleviate any potential miscommunications.

However the long term implications of such an app mean you are able to outlive yourself digitally. With this in mind Incubate contains a 'nursery' feature allowing parents or loved ones the chance to deliver messages to an email account for future generations to access. The idea hark perilously close to the themes explored in the Charlie Brooker penned Black mirror episode Be Right Back in which communication with a deceased person is restored through previous digital interactions.

More importantly though, Incubate brings to light the idea that we should think more carefully before sending our messages, bringing a greater poignancy weight and value to the ways in which we communicate.