Ōtautahi-based creative agency Not Another™ is releasing a world-first Slack app designed to help millions of Slack users worldwide learn Te Reo Māori.
It is officially the world's first Slack application designed to help people learn an indigenous language.
It is available to download on the Slack app marketplace to over 40 million users globally at no cost.
The app, named Daily Te Reo Māori, serves as a daily language tutor, seamlessly integrating the learning of Aotearoa’s
native language into the daily routines of Slack users.
Each morning, users receive a Māori word or short phrase in a dedicated Slack channel, encouraging not just language
learning but also cultural engagement and community building within workplaces and groups.
"Not only is this app a technological innovation, but it's also a cultural bridge," says Mark Townshend, co-founder of
Not Another™.
"Our goal was to create something that not only teaches a language but fosters a deeper understanding and appreciation
of Māori culture."
Developed entirely in-house, the app showcases Not Another™'s commitment to leveraging digital platforms for positive
social and cultural impact.
“There’s a groundswell of interest in learning Te Reo Māori at the moment and so we want to use our creative and
technical skills to support that,” Townshend says.
“It’s mahi we’re very proud of.”
Earlier this year, Not Another™ released Ngā Taonga o Te Ao Māori (The Gifts of the Māori World): a free video course for businesses throughout Aotearoa and the world.
“We’re on a mission to do whatever we can to help preserve and promote Te Reo Māori with Aotearoa and the world,” Not
Another’s Kaitohutohu (Advisor) Māori Josiah Komene says.
The agency envisions broad applications for the Slack Application technology, such as: teaching other languages,
disseminating news alerts, or sharing daily inspirational quotes by business leaders.
“We’ve built a technology that allows us to a design custom text tile then have variations of that tile broadcast to
millions of people via Slack. The potential applications of that are enormous,” Not Another™ co-founder Adrien Taylor
says.
“We want to hear from the likes of newsrooms, language teachers, and business leaders who’d be interested in having us
build them their own Slack app.”