Transcription
Hello everybody, welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Sarin. I'm blind and I have Tourette syndrome. And today is going to be a sort of little, not day of my life, but review of a new app that I've been using for months called Finch. And I really, really wanted to share it with you guys. So let's [Music] go.
So, so what is Finch? Finch is like a self-care app. And I know that self-care apps are notoriously very hit and miss for neurodivergent people, as a very broad umbrella term. Um, and I have found this one really, really amazing. Its main features, what it actually does, is you look after a little bird. Um, you can name it. Um, and it gives you loads of example names as well, so you don't have to come up with one, which is always nice. Um, and you basically have to complete goals to look after this little bird. Then each goal you complete, you get a little bit of energy for. So it gives you little energy points. It tells you how many points the task is worth. Um, and then it builds them up. And then you get to send your little bird on an adventure. And it's very, very cute.
So this is kind of how my day goes with Finch. So my first task is always getting out of bed. I mean, like obviously. But on Finch, my first task of getting out of bed, this also includes picking my earrings, which is something fun that I like to do in the morning. I, I love that these ones are kind of the examples because they're so simple. And actually, it recognizes that sometimes they do take a lot of effort. Some days it's just really, really difficult to get out of bed. So getting some sort of recognition from it is amazing.
Then I tend to clean my teeth. And I'm absolutely rubbish at cleaning my teeth. So this is actually one that I definitely put on here because it's so important. And you can set them so that you have to do them more than once a day. So obviously, I do cleaning my teeth twice a day. I'm very particular about how I do my teeth. It's not something that I enjoy. I mean, lots of people would enjoy it. It's a particularly mundane task. I hate the, I hate the feeling of the toothpaste in my mouth. Um, I hate the sound. Just everything grosses me off. So getting some little energy for doing something that I really find cool is, is very much needed, or I just wouldn't, wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it. So even when you're doing tasks that you have to do two of, it's still gives you the little haptic feedback. Um, to like congratulate you on doing it, even if you've only done technically half of the task.
My next one is probably have a drink. I only remember to do it because I'm competitive and I don't want to not send my little bird on its adventure, basically.
Then I have some really simple ones, like take three, three deep breaths. And this one's really good. I hadn't really done anything like that before I got this app. Like I'm not really a meditation or mindfulness kind of person. I find it really, really uncomfortable to be aware of my own body to that extent. But taking three deep breaths is something really easy that you can do. And actually, it surprisingly works. It's really annoying, but it surprisingly calms, calms you down. [Music] And this is a really good task for if I'm just feeling really bad because like you don't have to go anywhere to do it. You don't have to get up. You can sit on the sofa, take deep breaths, and you've got some energy.
Then I tend to add ones that I need to do throughout the day. So today's was vacuum stairs. The fact that I get some energy for this and I get to look after my little bird again, things my little goblin brain just eats up.
And because I'm a journalism student, I really try to keep up with the news. But it's really difficult to do that and not be on your phone all day, every day. So one of my tasks is listen or watch some form of news because it's something that you kind of have to keep up with every day. And I tend to do this in the evening when I forgot, cuz I can just ask my Amazon device, who we won't name, to read me like a news briefing. But sometimes I'll sit down and I'll turn on the TV. I don't always do this because it's not audio described. So sometimes you're just like, what is happening?
Something I also had today was to upload a social media post. Again, really not good at consistency. This is why my YouTube has nothing on it, basically. And especially as they're so hit and miss with like whether they're actually going to do well. Like I'm, I'm not really very familiar with YouTube, so I don't know for me what does well and what doesn't yet. Because I've got that little bit of encouragement, it doesn't matter as much if the video doesn't do as well because there's still some motivation behind it other than just interacting with people.
One of my tasks that I really like is my "do something that makes you happy." Because this can be literally anything. It can be really tiny, like give myself a little sweet treat, or it can be like going climbing. Like I really enjoy going climbing with my partner. But sometimes it's nice to remember that you need to do that. Like you can just do it as you go along, but actually it's quite nice to recognize that that's what you're doing and that's why you're doing it to make yourself happy.
So my last task of the day is usually to read some Braille. I have these books from the Clear Vision project, which are these really cute children's books because I'm practicing Braille to get better at it. But B, to put towards my Queen's Guide Award and my DV. And something that's really important to keep up with. And I don't know that I would have been able to do it quite as well without Finch because again, like I said, absolutely rubbish at being in, being consistent with things. And this is why it's my Queen's Guide and my DV, like skills, because it's really challenging me to stay consistent. This is technically the, like the last task I do. But obviously I put my phone away from the bed before I go to bed. So I tend to read Braille when I'm in bed because you can do that with the lights off. These excited people having to have the lights on for everything, running up their electricity bills. But yeah, because like I need to put it away before I go to bed, I was tick, tick, all the things I'm going to do off upstairs before I go. And then it forces me to do it because otherwise I feel like I'm lying and I don't want to lie to my little bird.
So my bird is called Noodle. And I can decorate her house and give her little outfits and things, which is really cute. So that's how my sort of day works with it.
But my favorite bits, my favorite thing about it is how screen reader accessible it is. Because that is really, really rare. With it, it kind of feels like they, they maybe thought about it, which is really nice. There are so many apps that literally just don't work with my screen reader at all. Like I, I can't, I don't download them because there's no point.
And also, following on that sort of accessibility, so it's got a little shop. And if you scroll all the way to the bottom, it has loads of mobility aids. Um, that you can just equip your bird with. So there's like a walking stick. And then they have white canes. And you can get them in so many different colors. Um, they have glasses and hearing aids. And then little insulin pumps as well. And I think that that is such a good bit of representation that actually you can equip your bird to be like you. Um, yeah, it's just one of the touches that they've really thought about and I really like it.
Future editing, Sarin here. I also wanted to add that, um, there's nothing in the shop that actually costs any, like real money. It's all these like little rainbow stones, which you can earn by doing quests. And, um, I think there's some other things you can earn them for. But they rack up really quickly. And there's no real money involved.
My next favorite thing is that you can request a hug. So there's literally just a button where you can request a hug. And you can have like friends on the app. So it will either request one from your friends, but if they're not available, it will request one from somewhere else in the world. So, um, you can get a hug sent to you just by one of the Finch team from somewhere in the world. And it's again, really cute. This is just such a cute app.
The next thing I absolutely love is, I don't know if you guys remember Moshi Monsters, but you could collect Moshlings. And these are micro pets. And they kind of remind me of Moshlings. So you can collect little different pets that are pets to your bird. But they're so cute. Like my partner got, um, one that's just a little caterpillar or a worm or something called Squiggle, I think. Um, and they all have really cute names and little backstories. And you can evolve them by taking them on your adventures with you.
This is something that I really love because they have really thought about it. And it's amazing from a chronic illness perspective because you can get more energy for doing tasks on your, like bad days. So when you open the app, it basically gives you a, um, chart. And if you click the bottom two, it means that your, um, energy points, your tasks are worth more energy points because you're feeling terrible.
Next is that it's not addictive. Like there isn't much that goes on in it. Like there are no games. There's no, oops, my battery went flat. So yeah, it's not addictive. There are no games in it, which means that you're not like coming back to it. And it's really easy to turn off the notifications. You can choose that if you get any notifications for like specific tasks you want to do at specific times. Like you can set your tasks and goals to like happen at specific times or for specific dates. But you can also turn that off. So I don't have any notifications other than when my friends send me, um, little messages.
So some things that need some improvements within the app. I genuinely really can't think of many. These, um, literally I've come up with two. So the little tags, um, you can do reflections. And it will basically take the keywords from whatever you've written and then turn it into like a, um, thing at the end of the week where it says like, these things weighed you down, these things lifted you up, like these were the things that made you happy, and these were the things that stressed you out, basically. Um, and it's really good. But it does take some random words, so they aren't always the most useful. But literally that's, that's such a minor thing.
I genuinely can't think of many more. Other than the screen reader accessibility, it's amazing compared with so many apps. However, there are things that don't work with it. Um, so there are just things that it will like skip over. Like the affirmations in the beginning, it, um, works really well with the quotes, but not the affirmations. My partner was the one who made me realize that they were actually there in the first place. Um, so I assume they're pictures. I'll have to ask her. Um, but they don't work. And there are just, yeah, there are a couple of things that it just skips over and doesn't really work properly. But again, like it works the majority of the time, so it's really good. They just need to label their images, basically. Um, I think a lot of it, a lot of the things that it actually tells me are there, I don't know whether that's my phone, like guessing what it is or not, because sometimes it goes like, image description accuracy low. It calls my bird house like a fairy house or something like that. Um, so I think that's just guessing. But like all of the micro pets and everything, you can swipe on them and they tell you exactly who they are and their names. So most of it works. They're just a few little things that just need their like label.
Then the paywall. So I really understand why they have a paywall on this one. Um, it does cost, it does cost quite a lot. I think it's like $49.99 a year, I believe. Um, which, yeah, it's a lot if you can't afford it. But it does seem to keep Finch going. It must take so much to like keep an app running. Um, and actually, there's not much behind the paywall at all. I think it's like customized emojis. Um, and like there are a few more exercises and things that you can pick a few different sort of reflections. But like most of the things you can do without paying for it, which is amazing. And if you really can't afford it, then you can apply to have one of the memberships given by the Guardians as well. The Guardians are people who pay for like the Finch Plus for other people. So people who can't afford it can actually get Finch Plus because these people have paid it for them. And they're like little Guardian Angels. You can't pick your icons, but it actually like picks them for you. Sometimes they're totally irrelevant, but sometimes they actually fit quite well.
The most not annoying thing, um, maybe slightly annoying, but you can't see your full like history of like. So it will come up with these weekly reports and you can only see back a certain amount of weeks. You can't see back to like, I wouldn't be able to see back to when I started to see how my mood has improved or anything.
Lastly, is the bits that I just think are really well thought through. Um, so it's just made so much more personal. Like, cuz obviously you can name it and everything, but you can also change the waking hours, which is brilliant for night owls like me. I'm not a morning person. Um, I tend to do most of, most of my things like in the afternoon, evening time. So I've basically got mine set that, um, it resets at 8 AM instead of just like resetting at midnight. Um, for the new day. You can still do your tasks all the way up to then. You can also have a goal of the day. So you can like star one of your goals and then it pops up at the top, which is really nice. You can mute the Good Vibes. Um, so those are the little messages that you can send your friends and they can send you.
This one I love. So you can actually send your bird on the adventure. It adds up all the energy points from your tasks throughout the day. You can also get those energy points by doing like reflections. They give you little prompts and then you just answer them and it's just sort of like about what you're feeling and what you're grateful for and things like that. That also give you energy points. So you can actually send your bird on an adventure without doing any of your tasks. So if you're having a particularly bad day, then you actually don't, don't even have to do any of your tasks. And it doesn't matter. There's no pressure on it.
So yeah, thank you so much for watching. If you want more content like this or want some different kind of content, um, then feel free to like and subscribe. Comment if you have any questions about how it works or if you've used Finch before and what you liked or didn't like about it. And hopefully it keeps me uploading more videos. Um, because I love YouTube and I would love to upload more videos, but again, useless consistency. Thanks for watching everybody. Bye. [Music] Now. [Music]