Naperville couple launches angel app for iPhone
While some people carry a guardian angel-adorned coin, medal or pin as a symbol of prayer and faith, a Naperville couple said they have modernize the practice.
Instead of an "angel in your pocket," Jeanne and David Buddingh, who also own their own marketing firm in Naperville, have founded a new app development company called Saints Be With Us, which has launched its first app, Angel In My Phone for iPhone.
The app, that costs 99 cents to download, lets you give a loved one a virtual angel along with a chosen prayer from a prayer list or the ability to create your own prayer. The prayers can recognize an important day, occasion or just because. Recipients keep their angel and prayer on their Apple mobile device to view as often as they like.
"Today, as in the past, we continue to see angels as a symbol of protection and faith. Often times we give them as gifts to show loved ones that they are in our prayers. The Angel In My Phone app was created to combine this timeless tradition with modern technology. The Angel In My Phone serves as a reminder to all that carry it that they are not alone," David Buddingh said.
The Buddinghs first thought about creating the app about two years ago.
"We were at a Hallmark store and noticed the little tokens featuring angels on the counter and I remembered being a child carrying a similar 'angel in my pocket' token. David's question was: 'How do you translate that tradition of carrying an angel token in your pocket in today's technically savvy world?' We thought something on your iPhone seemed a natural," Jeanne Buddingh said.
The app was then modeled almost like the greeting card business model. It allows you to send a prayer or an angel for birthdays, birth of a child, Christmas, as you would do with a greeting card.
"Our hope would be that people would 'gift the app' to others, like a mother sending an angel for safe travel to her children," she said.
The Buddinghs then worked with Scott Swoboda of Stratum Development Inc. in Wheaton to create the app.
"Angels have always been a part of our lives," she said. "With life's ups and downs, the constant of having that guardian angel beside you makes the hard times more bearable and the good times more joyful."
• Follow Anna Marie Kukec on LinkedIn and Facebook and as AMKukec on Twitter. Write to her at akukec@dailyherald.com.