StudyMessenger was my site that let you practice your language skills by chatting with an AI character using voice or text. After each brief chat you’d get instant feedback on how you did, and ways to improve. Teachers, Parents and Caregivers had full control of their Student accounts and are able to track progress through a tailored dashboard. On the 6th of July, I shut it down.
Why I Built StudyMessenger
In 2023 I began working on the biggest programming project I have built so far – StudyMessenger.com. StudyMessenger was a free, AI-powered platform. Studying any language is hard, but when nobody at home spoke Simplified Chinese, I developed StudyMessenger as a desktop app to help practice text and voice conversations. After testing the app with plenty of conversations, I saw a significant improvement in my AAPPL (conversational chinese test).
After my exams, I spent weekends and holidays porting the app onto the web for everyone to use. All the coding was done by me, with my Dad helping on bits of text for the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
With many other platforms providing similar language learning services, I wanted to set StudyMessenger apart by making it as student and child friendly as possible, leading to StudyMessenger’s separate student and teacher accounts, and strong safeguards.
Why I Shut It Down
Earlier this year, a vendor supplying some of the site’s AI technology withdrew access to a model without warning. I was able to rebuild and retest the platform, but the site remained offline for almost a week while I satisfied myself that the replacement model protected student safety and security.
On the 26th of June, the new vendor announced that this replacement model will also be decommissioned next month. I have reluctantly concluded that I do not have the resources to keep rebuilding and retesting StudyMessenger each time this happens.
What Happens Now
After it got shut down the 6th of July, StudyMessenger.com now redirects to this page. Students’ data, which contains no personal data, will be retained until 5 October and then deleted. Users of StudyMessenger who have created student accounts have already been contacted by email about this. If they wish to be sent an encrypted copy of their and their students’ data, or have the data deleted sooner, they can reply to the announcement email, or contact me at studymessengerhelp@gmail.com.
As for me, I hope to post more frequent updates on my robotics project here on my blog.
Thank you for using and supporting StudyMessenger. Building a personal learning tool into a platform used by students around the world has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I’m grateful to everyone who helped make that possible.