When your grandchild lives 600 miles away, sometimes a phone call just isn’t enough.
That’s the conclusion first-time grandmother Linda Salesky, 52, reached after trying to connect with her grandson, Avery, in Portland, Ore.
So Salesky, a Novato resident, came up with ustyme (pronounced us time), an iPad app that allows users to play games and read books together. People can talk, see one another and interact with a shared activity all at the same time.
“Obviously there’s no replacement for that physical time sitting next to my grandson or cousins,” said Salesky, whose grandson is 2 years old. “[But] ustyme really fits in between those times when we can’t be next to one another.”
Salesky is the co-founder and CEO of the Sausalito-based company, which recently received $2 million in startup funding. The app is designed to be as user-friendly as possible, she added.
Users download the free app in the iTunes store, where they’re welcomed with two free books and several games.
Users then invite their friends and family by sending them an email using the app. Once the invitation is accepted, both parties can play games, including four- in-a-row and chess, or read a picture book together, such as “The Three Little Pigs.”
“Whoever has that [particular] book or game makes the selection and shares that with the other person on the other side,” Salesky said.
New games and books can be purchased inside the app, and currently range from 99 cents to $1.99. “It’ll ask you for your Apple ID and password, and then [your Apple account] gets charged that way,” Salesky said. “There’s no exchanging of credit card information.”
The app works with the iPad Mini, second-generation iPads and its successors. Salesky hopes to expand it to other platforms in the near future.
More than four dozen books are currently available, including three in Spanish, and six games. The first Jewish-specific book, “The Dreidel Song,” is scheduled to be released this month in time for the beginning of Hanukkah.
“We want to reach out to the Jewish community,” added Salesky, the mother of four — including a student at Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, and a Brandeis-Hillel Day School student.
Salesky said ustyme is about much more than initial activity.
“It’s about the conversation around the story and the talking points,” she said. “It’s about engagement. Through these discussions, whether I’m playing a game of checkers or four-in-a-row, you’re having conversations.”
Although Salesky initially designed the app so grandparents could interact with their grandchildren across the miles, anyone can use it, she said. “There’s the dad who travels, who can play a game or read to his child while seeing his child’s face and talking to them.”
Salesky sees ustyme as the evolution of interactive technology. “The telephone provided that original connection, and then you had the video call with Skype. It’s about going one step further.”
She stressed that at its core, however, ustyme is about building connections.
“It’s really about giving the gift of time,” she said. “You can buy children anything, but when you take the time to have this shared experience, I think that’s what really matters most to kids.
“What it says to them is that ‘I’m important and you care about me’ and alone helps builds self-esteem.”