antiglum: A Cool New App For Bored Families

#CoronaBored? Us too. Everyone is. That’s why Melbourne creative and dad Keith Walsh created antiglum, a cool little app with 99 simple art and craft-based activities “for families, kids, couples, singles and everyone in between”.

“The general gist of the app is to help families – or anyone – to come up with activities to kill a bit of boredom,” says Walsh, the founder and creative director of Melbourne-based creative studio Studio Yeah.

“Some are funny, most are simple, quick activities, and some take a bit longer, and all can be done using stuff normally found around the house.”

Walsh believes the app is worthy of a life that outlives the current “normal”. “Kids will always be ‘bored’ and we will always need ideas to keep our hands and brains busy,” he says.

Once you download the not-for-profit app – all profits are donated to Foodbank Australia to help provide food to those in need during the pandemic – you’ll receive three fresh activities with instructions each day, with a new batch dropping every morning at 10 am. You can skip activities up to three times a day, and once all 99 have dropped you can go back and redo all of them again at your own pace. Activities and artwork can be shared with others.

Walsh says his six-year-old son was the inspiration for the app, while COVID-19 pushed the project into action. “We were literally in day one of lockdown. My kid was looking for something to do and so was I. I decided to see if I could do a super simple app and get it out super quickly. It was made in three weeks and kept our design studio busy while our clients went quiet,” he says.

Walsh’s son also inspired his first app, also designed to help people through scary times: Who’s your daddy?, an app for first-time dads.

Antiglum can be downloaded here, costing AU$1.49 (US$0.99 / £0.99 / €1.09).