Why did I create YourPING? Well, it's simple really: fear ...

CREATED BY STEFFI LEWIS Published: 27/07/2026 @ 09:02AM #LivingAlone #WorkFromHome #SmallCircle #WonderfulFriends #AdultResponsibilities

I live alone, work from home and have a fairly small circle of close friends. They are wonderful people, and I know they would absolutely be there for me if I needed them. But like most adults, they have their own lives, responsibilities, and routines ...

Why did I create YourPING? Well, it's simple really: fear that someone wouldn't notice my absence for far too long

Weeks can disappear surprisingly quickly, and it is entirely possible for me to go several days, sometimes even a week, without speaking directly to anyone. Even longer when I'm coding and totally focused on what I'm doing.

But one thought stayed quietly in the back
of my mind for a long time!

What would actually happen if something went wrong at home? What if I tripped over one of the cats on the stairs on a Friday evening, hit my head, and could not reach my phone? What if one of my aneurysms decided to cause problems again? Or what if some other medical emergency left me unable to call for help? Who would know? More importantly, how long would it take for someone to realise something was wrong?

For me, the first warning sign would probably be a Monday morning when blog posts for my clients didn't appear. That would likely prompt a few messages from people wondering where I had vanished to. But not everyone has that kind of online visibility, and there are countless stories from around the world about people who quietly slipped out of sight for far longer than anyone would care to imagine.

How many people has this happened to?

Ever heard the story of Joyce Vincent? She died in her London flat and was not discovered for over two years. She had plenty of money in her bank account at the time of her death, so her bills continued to be paid. It wasn't until her money finally ran out that the landlords accessed her property and found her deceased, with the TV still on.

Then there was Hedviga Golik in Croatia, who reportedly remained undiscovered in her apartment for decades. She was withdrawn and didn't want to leave her home, even asking neighbours to go shopping for her. And then one day, nothing. People assumed she'd left and hadn't said goodbye. But she was still in there, still paying her bills, for years and years.

Stories like this sound unbelievable at first, but modern life has quietly reshaped how people live. Bills are automated, shopping is online, remote work is common, and social interaction increasingly takes place through screens rather than in person.

The uncomfortable truth is that many independent people can go unnoticed for much longer than most of us realise. So this is why I created YourPING.

I tend to build software for myself first, then for others in the same situation. I built sBlogIt! because I wanted an easier way to blog consistently. I built YourPCM because I wanted a better way to organise my contacts and relationships. I built YourBOT because AI chatbots fascinated me and I wanted a platform I would genuinely use.

The same goes for YourPING!

It is not about panic or surveillance. In fact, I deliberately wanted to avoid creating something that felt cold, clinical or intrusive. YourPING is not designed to monitor people or interfere with independent living. Quite the opposite. It is designed for people who value their independence, enjoy their own space, and simply want a quiet layer of reassurance that sits gently in the background of everyday life.

Modern life has changed how many of us live. More and more people work remotely, live alone, socialise online, and spend long stretches without direct human contact, even while remaining digitally connected to the world around them.

YourPING was designed to fit naturally into that reality, using simple technology people already understand, such as browser notifications, text messages, email reminders and trusted contacts.

Because somebody should notice if you don't check in.

Until next time ...

STEFFI LEWIS
Founder & Creator of YourPING

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About Steffi Lewis ...
Based in the charming village of Hanslope in Buckinghamshire, UK, I bring over 30 years of experience in web development. From creating my first website for the Open University in 1993, through being part of the dot com boom, to my explorations in SaaS and AI over the last few years, my journey has been a rich tapestry of web projects, big and small, both funded and bootstrapped. YourPING was created around a very modern idea: in a world of remote work, automated living and digital communication, it has become surprisingly easy for people to quietly drift off the radar. Bills are paid automatically, shopping arrives online and many people can go days without speaking to someone directly, even while remaining connected to the world through screens and social media. Designed as a calm and supportive daily check-in system, YourPING helps provide quiet reassurance for people who live alone, work remotely, travel frequently or simply value their independence. Using browser notifications, SMS backup alerts, email escalation and trusted contacts, the platform is intentionally simple to use without complicated gadgets, wearables or intrusive monitoring. At its heart, YourPING is not about fear or surveillance. It is about modern independent living and the simple comfort of knowing that if something feels unusual, somebody will notice. My head is in the cloud, my heart belongs to the web, and my soul is filled with such beautiful code 💚

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