Why we built Alfred
Travel is great right up until you need to make a phone call in a language you don’t speak.
We’re Webmates, and we’re building this in Switzerland. The idea is simple: travel is great right up until you need to make a phone call in a language you don’t speak.
Menus are solved. Calls aren’t.
Translation apps are brilliant for signs and menus. You can point your camera at almost anything. A phone call is different. It’s live, it’s fast, and there’s nothing to point a camera at. So the call to the little restaurant, the massage place or the driver for tomorrow morning tends not to happen.
What we wanted it to do
Tell it what you need in your own words. It calls the place in their language, has the conversation, and you get the result on your phone: booked or not, the details, and a button to add it to your calendar.
We also had a few rules from the start:
- It says it’s an AI assistant. No pretending to be a person.
- Nothing is dialled until you tap Call now.
- No answer, a busy line or voicemail costs nothing.
- An unanswered call is reported as unanswered. Never as a booking.
Where we are now
Alfred is an iPhone app in a private beta on TestFlight. It calls in 19 languages, your first call is free for up to 2 minutes, and after that you pay per minute in credits. If you’d like to try it, join the waitlist on our homepage and we’ll be in touch when a spot opens.