Is it just us or is autocorrect out to get all of us? It happened to Maci Peterson one time when she sent a text to a first date. Instead of asking, “Are you in DC?”, autocorrect made her ask, “Are you in ME?” Maci was so embarrassed, she launched On Second Thought this week. The Android app becomes the phone’s default text app and lets users take back a message before it reaches the receiver’s eyes. Maci’s three-person tech team, based at 1776, are working on an iPhone version. The app is free for a limited number of retrieved texts and then it’s $1.99 per month.
Maci, with co-founders Gary Keeler and Stewart Voit, says it’s the only app that can handle SMS and MMS messaging, lets users set how many seconds they have to take back a message, and it’s the only one that never lets the text actually reach the phone. She has several strategies up her sleeve for getting hundreds of thousands of users in the next few weeks, including getting some exposure through Gary’s Postings app. It’s one of the most popular on Google Play, with 2.5 million people using it monthly to search and post on Craigslist. She’s also working on getting it placed in movies and TV shows, including a cable reality series she couldn’t yet name. And she’s tapping former colleagues at 20th Century Fox, where she worked in product placement.
