How clever technology is stopping millennials from flaking on plans

Fickleness is the modern malaise and technology has streamlined the cancellation process. Millennials are particularly afflicted: indeed, we are inveterate flakes, who make one plan while intending to do another. As we “confirm” next Wednesday, we are half-preparing our cancellation text. Perhaps we will invoke a migraine — or did we use that last time?

But the days of cancelling may be numbered and the snowflake generation is about to be superseded by the no-flake generation. Technology is devising ways to remedy our congenital carelessness.

Notably, the new Cortana — Microsoft’s version of Siri — has launched a new function that scans your emails and sets reminders that badger you not to flake on plans. An algorithm scans your outgoing messages and recognises when you have made a commitment; it will then ask you to create a reminder to actually do what you are currently agreeing to. The function, called “suggested reminders”, was revealed in a Microsoft blog last week. It will arrive in the UK this month. The hounding sounds smug and intrusive — which likely means it will work.

We’ve come full circle. Once, you had to call people to drop out of plans — or worse — look them in the eye. Then came faceless messaging — you can send a bald WhatsApp, cancel, and then blithely continue to do whatever you’d rather. Alternatively — even colder — you can wait for the text enquiring about “Whether we’re still on for tonight?” and just ignore it altogether. You’ll apologise a few days later when they’ve forgotten all about it. They probably have — most of us are as bad as each other. But now technology is making it hard to cancel again.

Cortana joins other high-tech guilt-trips. Gmail’s Inbox app also invites you to “set a reminder” when it detects, via an algorithm, that you are making plans. The icon for this function riffs pleasingly on the analogue: a finger with a string looped around it. Inbox also notices when you have booked tickets and creates an event in your calendar. It will then nudge you on the day, using up-to-date traffic information to ensure you make it to the station or airport in time.

Facebook Messenger uses a similar algorithm: if you mention a time (e.g. 7pm tomorrow) it will automatically pull up a “set event reminder” within the app — press it and it creates a reminder for both parties, which will go off an hour beforehand — still without taking you away from the Messenger screen. Granted, your opposite number might think it’s a bit pass-agg — but it also means they probably won’t flake on you.

Incorrigible flakes might consider re-setting the notifications for messages and WhatsApps (and taking all those WhatsApp groups off “mute”). In the iOS Notification Centre, you can set yours so that notices about new messages do not disappear but hover as a banner until you have dealt with them. You will feel harried and, at the very least, will stop ghosting your poor mates.

Others simply streamline the calendar process. On Due, which is available for iOS, it takes a few taps to create an event — and it will remind you ahead of time — and Life Reminders for Android has a similarly low-key, functional interface.

There was never really an excuse for flaking — now tech has made it unconscionable. It’s high time you made plans to keep to yours.

Follow Phoebe Luckhurst on Twitter: @phoebeluckhurst