When Ralph Richardson’s sister passed away, he tried to make sure everyone who cared about her heard the news. But he ran into a problem no address book could fix. There was no list. Who were the neighbors? The old coworkers? Was there a friend from decades ago that no one in the family had ever met? 

Richardson didn’t just lack a way to reach these people—he didn’t know who they were. 

It was a small but painful realization in the middle of a much larger loss. And at 81, it left him thinking about his own wife, and the same impossible task she would one day face for him.

That thought became iCroaked™, an app that lets people prepare their own farewell message in advance and choose exactly who should receive it—in their own words—when they die. 

Delivered by a survivor in two taps, it’s built to spare grieving families one task they shouldn’t have to carry alone, and to make sure the people who mattered hear it the way the person meant it.

“You don’t want your final word to someone to be secondhand, pieced together by a family member who’s still in shock,” Richardson said. “This is just a way to make sure the people who mattered to you actually hear from you—not about you.”

Now 83, Richardson has watched the idea move from a personal need to a working app; iCroaked™ has moved out of private beta and is now live, priced at about the cost of a greeting card. 

Setup only takes a few minutes:

Write a personal farewell message for when you’re gone—as heartfelt or as simple as you like.

Choose the people you want notified—family, friends, coworkers, anyone who mattered.

That’s it. When the time comes, your survivor opens your phone, taps the happy frog icon with the halo, and sends it. Two taps and all the important people are notified.

The idea is also finding traction beyond individual users: funeral homes have begun introducing iCroaked™ into their pre-planning conversations, offering families a simple way to think through a part of end-of-life planning that’s easy to overlook.

iCroaked™ is available now on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Learn more at www.icroaked.co.

—Contributed story