--- title: "The first real message | Socialheads Blog" url: https://socialheads.co.uk/blog/the-first-real-message/ --- Product Updates 15 July 2026 Jeremy # The first real message The two weeks that turned Socialheads into something you can actually use. Real messaging on phone and desktop, profiles and transparency, agreements and consent, and twice the pace of the last one. **Building in public. Six weeks in, ten to go.** A few nights ago I opened Socialheads on my phone, and my wife sent me a message on it. There it was. A real message, on the real app, landing exactly the way it will for the people who need it. Months of planning, research and networking, and it all came together in that one small moment. It is hard to explain the joy of it. Turning a set of designs into something you can actually use has been the big accomplishment. And it goes well beyond the facade. The architecture, the infrastructure, the testing and so much more all had to be laid down to get here. The secret sauce behind a simple product is the homework and its foundations. ## What shipped - A young person can send and receive messages from their phone. - A practitioner can message from both the team app on their computer and their phone, so they can pick up a conversation wherever they are. - Every chat opens ready, with a warm welcome already waiting. - Profiles, so there is a real person behind every chat and not just a name. - Transparency built in: your profile, exactly how others see you, is one tap away in your chats and kept separate from your private account. You always know how you come across, and you stay in control. - Agreements and consent: you see what you are agreeing to before you start, in plain words, and you can look back at exactly what you agreed to any time. - Both apps now run on our real design system, mobile and web. It does not feel like a finished product yet, the team app especially has work to do, but it is getting close. - The safeguarding backbone: clear roles, a full audit trail that records who did what and even who viewed what, and break-glass access a safeguarding lead can use when they need to, logged every time. In these two weeks we built more than in any stretch so far. For anyone who works in product: this sprint ran at twice the pace of the last one. ## What made the difference **Flow.** When I am properly in flow I am faster and more resourceful. Problems that would usually stall me turn into things I route around. **Marinating.** My advisor and coach [Breda](https://www.linkedin.com/in/breda-spillane/) always tells me to sit with things before I move. It is advice I already believed in, and I appreciate it more each time I see it proved right. Jumping straight in feels productive, right up until you are wading through molasses, every step slowed by decisions, meetings and blockers. Thinking first is what clears the path. The value of it is badly underrated. **Constraints.** What I have learned is that they are healthy. Being frugal and resourceful means exhausting every option to build a platform that is genuinely cost effective and simple, and it shows. We applied to the [Auth0 startup programme](https://auth0.com/startups) and were accepted, which saves us around £6,000 a year. Even better, it means we can do more with less, with secure sign-in and enterprise single sign-on for the organisations that need it. A great foundation for those first pilots. A huge thanks to Auth0. ## What’s next Ten weeks to go. Now we build up on these foundations: - Getting the real app onto phones: automated iOS and Android builds, the App Store and Google Play accounts, and an invite that installs and opens the app. - Group chats you can create, manage and wind down. - Assigning a young person to a worker, and handing over when someone moves on. - Reporting or flagging a message for safeguarding review. - Working in more than one language, with wording that fits each sector. - Settings: notifications, privacy and the everyday basics. - A dashboard that gives a practitioner their organisation at a glance. - Continuous accessibility and design polish. The groundwork is down. Now it starts to come alive. ## Interested in a pilot? If you run a service and this is the kind of thing your team has been missing, I would love to hear from you. You can [join our pilot](/get-started) or [get in touch](/contact). The first organisations on board will help shape what Socialheads becomes. ![Socialheads](/assets/img/logo.svg) **About Socialheads:** We're a UK social enterprise creating a purpose-built messaging platform for care, co-designed with practitioners, young people and organisations. [Learn more about our work](/about) ![Jeremy](/assets/img/team/jeremy-pitt.jpg) Written by Jeremy [Socialheads team](/about) [Back to blog](/blog) Share:[](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsocialheads.co.uk%2Fblog%2Fthe-first-real-message\&text=The%20first%20real%20message)[](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsocialheads.co.uk%2Fblog%2Fthe-first-real-message) ## Stay informed about safer digital communication for care and youth services Get evidence-based insights, research findings, and practical guidance delivered straight to your inbox ## Related articles Product Updates ### [Four weeks to go](/blog/four-weeks-to-go) I called it the Safeguarding dashboard, and a conversation with a council showed me the same name can fit one service and not another. Plus push notifications, availability, per-service settings, a few important words, and a grant application for the fostering side. [Read more](/blog/four-weeks-to-go) Product Updates ### [Halfway](/blog/halfway) Group chats, reports with compliance and safeguarding dashboards, message flagging, re-assignment that keep the record. [Read more](/blog/halfway) ## Ready to learn more? Socialheads is built and working today. See what it does and what it costs. [Get started ](/get-started)[Get in touch](/contact)