Sanct Social releases Episode 8, a short film about who can come when your family lives a flight away

SINGAPORE – Sanct Social, the Singapore-registered social app for close friends and family, released the eighth episode of its short film series on YouTube on Saturday 24 October. "Someone came." runs under two minutes, has no spoken lines, and is built around one question: when the person you love is unwell in another country, and your family cannot come, who can?

The film's answer is not the app. It is a person: someone a friend you trust introduces. The app's job is to make that introduction, that request and that arrival as short as possible, and the film shows each step as it works in Sanct Social today.

What the film is about

Keisha works in Singapore; her family is in Jakarta. She comes home with a cough on a Friday night and goes to sleep hours earlier than usual. Her sister sees the sleep status, knows something is off, and cannot fly over for a cough. So she asks Keisha's friend Rivani, who is at her mother's house in Johor for the weekend. Rivani introduces her mother. By Saturday lunch, a mother Keisha had never met is at her door with a tiffin carrier, forty minutes from Johor Bahru.

"Episode 1 of this series ended with 'nobody came'. This film is the answer I wanted to give: when your own family is a flight away, the person who can come is often one introduction away, and the people who love you can make that introduction," said Mr Sion Abednego, founder of Sanct Social. "Everything in the film is a real feature. Each one exists so that someone who cares about you can act, not just reply."

The five features the film shows, and how to use them

1. Sleep with an alarm your friends can see. Purpose: the people close to you know you are resting, and an early night can be a quiet signal. How: open Sancty's sleep screen, choose "Sleep or nap?", pick Sleep, add an alarm by scrolling the hour and minute like the iPhone clock, and save. The app shows "Sweet dreams — your friends can see you're sleeping". In the morning the wake sound, First Light, starts soft and grows; press and hold "I'm Awake", or take "10 more minutes". Keep the app open for the alarm to ring.

2. Introduce two people with a contact card. Purpose: on Sanct Social, strangers cannot add each other; a friend you trust can bridge the gap. How: in a chat, tap the plus, then Contact, then "Share a Contact", and pick someone from your friends. The card shows the person's name and photo with "View on Sanct". The person you were introduced to becomes someone you can add.

3. A friend request with a message, and the Friend requests screen. Purpose: the other person knows who you are and why you are asking. How: open the profile from the card. You see "via Rivani · 1 mutual friend". Tap "Add friend", write one line, and send. The app confirms "Request sent — they'll see your message." On the other phone, the bell opens Friend requests: "Pending (1)", swipe right to accept, left to ignore.

4. Live location for thirty minutes. Purpose: the person waiting can see you coming, without a stream of "where are you" messages. How: tap the plus, Check In, choose the place, Share Location, and pick Live. The app shares your moving location for the next 30 minutes and then stops by itself.

5. Friend categories: Friend, Business, Family, Partner. Purpose: not everyone in your circle is the same, and some things are for family only. Family and Partner are agreed by both people; Friend and Business change at once; nobody else sees the category. How: open a friend's profile, tap "Switch category", and choose. For Family or Partner the other person gets a request: "wants to mark you as Family", with Accept or Decline. When they accept, the word appears on both profiles. When you share a moment, "Who can see this?" lets you pick a category, so the lunch photo in the film goes to Family only.

Why these features together

Put in order, the five features are the chain the film follows: a sleep status that says something is wrong, an introduction by someone you trust, a request that explains itself, a location that says "I am on my way", and a category that says "you are family now". Sanct Social is built for the people who are still there for you, and the film is a two-minute demonstration of how they get to your door.

About the film and the app

"Someone came." is the eighth episode of the Sanct Social story on YouTube. Every app screen in it comes from the app as it is today, changed only for the characters' names, words, photos and times. The sleep alarm and the friend categories are part of the update that is about to reach the App Store; the rest is in the app now. Sanct Social is free with no ads, available for iPhone on the App Store in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia and in nine more countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, India and Japan, in English, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia and Hindi; the Android version is not ready yet. More than 1,000 people are already on the platform.

Sanct Social can be downloaded through https://sanct.social