• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 17, 2015

It's a challenge. No matter how hard a parent tries, kids will always look at parents like they were born yesterday and haven't amassed any knowledge, despite the fact that they have been alive two or three times as long as their whiny little progeny. Well, SapientNitro has announced a new app that will help parents better communicate with their children and quickly become much cooler in their eyes.  

SapientNitro just launched SpeakEmoji, an app that will help parents and relatives break through the kids’ smartphone trance by speaking to them in their own language -- emoji -- and in doing so, make Christmas the meaningful family time it’s supposed to be. Or so the agency would like us to believe.  

SpeakEmoji translates grown-up speak into "cool" emoji messages to help adults engage with their festive little “digital natives.” All you do is speak to the app and it will translate your words into emojis that are, sadly, better understood by kids these days rather than, you know, actual words. 

Of the time-waster, SapientNitro ECD Mark Hunter said: “Technology has revolutionized the way we communicate many times in the past, and with the rapid rise of emojis we’re seeing it again. In the blink of an eye we’ve gone from DIY emoticons to thousands of fully animated faces and symbols at our fingertips. Indeed, what we’re witnessing is the birth of a new, universal language. And what could be more perfectly suited for our digital age than that?! To celebrate what will undoubtedly go down as the year of the emoji, we created SpeakEmoji, a voice-to-emoji translator that ensures it’s not just teenagers having all the fun. Now even those of us who’ve yet to master the art of quickly locating the perfect emoji on the keyboard can join the conversation.” 

Check out this video of an Austin Powers-like "cool" parent demonstrating the many uses of the app.