Creating an app for British Armed Forces Personnel to read stories and leave messages for their families at home
The Little Troopers Treasures app was built around two main concepts: The ‘Memory Box’ and ‘Stories'.
Memory Box allows military parents to record videos of up to two minutes in length that will be saved on a secure server hosted by Cantarus. The next time the family of the military parent logs in to the app, they are alerted to a new video that is available to watch, personally made for them, by their parent. The videos can showcase any type of message that the parent wishes, whether that be a quick hello or something more elaborate. Parents also have the option to schedule when they want their video messages to appear, ensuring that they will never miss a child’s birthday - even if they are unable to record a message on the day.
The Stories section uses a scaled-down version of the app’s video-recording functionality, and features the parent reading a bedtime story to their children at home.
Due to international time zones, a child’s bedtime could coincide with a military parent’s active duty, or even while they are sleeping themselves. We wanted to ensure that military parents could always be there for bedtime, even if not physically. Little Troopers Treasures allows parents to choose from a range of popular children's books, and records their reading session. The app is able to determine when each page is turned, so that when the family reads the same story at a later date, the turning of the page is automatically synced.
We wanted Little Troopers Treasures to be a source of comfort for military families whenever they want to feel closer to each other when they’re not in the same country, or even the same continent. Each recording can be watched an unlimited number of times, establishing a connection between families and serving personnel that goes beyond borders.
Little Troopers wanted to prove that reading an e-book could be just as fun as reading a paperback. Our expertise in delivering apps with attention to detail, and a focus on subtle features and animations, ensured that the digital storytelling experience pushes against the limitations of paperback books. We were able to combine storytelling and unprecedented interactivity for something heartfelt and entirely unique to service families.
Cantarus and Little Troopers would like to give special thanks to ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, whose funding made the Little Troopers Treasures app possible, and Harper Collins for keeping the app's library stocked with a range of fantastic books for families to enjoy.