Lawyer Downloads Messaging App for One Client

14 October 2026

SYDNEY: Halcourt & Blyth partner Daniel Pryce has installed a separate messaging app exclusively for one client, who is now the only contact in it and requires more attention than everyone in his email inbox combined.

Nova.AI founder Tyler Wren insisted that Pryce download NovaChat because it was “super secure” and would make communicating much easier. Pryce already had Wren’s telephone number and email address, but Wren explained that these were no longer suitable. “Email’s obsolete. It’s over fifty years old,” he said, before emailing Pryce the download link.

NovaChat had been vibe-coded over a weekend and repeatedly rejected by the App Store as spam or insufficiently functional. Wren said Apple was struggling to keep up. Pryce has since installed three replacement versions, each from a new link, and is getting quite good at it. The latest version opens reliably, although the messages from the previous version are no longer there.

“It’s one client,” Pryce said. “Everyone else manages to email me. But apparently we need this.”

The app includes a feature called predictive messages, which Wren explained was like predictive text, only better. Instead of suggesting the next few words, it learns how you communicate and sends the whole message for you. This saves users the time they would otherwise spend reading a message, deciding what they think and replying.

“You’ve said ‘thanks’ a thousand times. It knows you’re going to say thanks,” Wren said. “Why do you need to type it again?”

Pryce initially thought this sounded quite useful. The app began by thanking Wren for documents and confirming that Pryce would review them shortly. It has since progressed to confirming that he has reviewed them and that they look fine.

“I hadn’t got to those yet,” Pryce said. “Tyler says that’s all right because he’s already sent them.”

The feature also operates on Wren’s account. When Pryce asked which version of the shareholders agreement the investors had signed, he received an immediate response explaining that the final version was fully executed, subject to finalisation of the execution process. He asked whether this meant it had been signed and received a much longer response beginning “Absolutely”.

Wren had not read either question. He said this demonstrated how much time the app was saving him.

Voice messages are automatically converted to text and sent without requiring the user to review them, which Wren described as removing another unnecessary step. Pryce recorded “I wouldn’t sign that version” and watched it arrive as “I would sign that version”. By the time he had typed a correction, Wren had reacted with a thumbs up.

Pryce has also been trying to add “Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation” to his messages, as required on the firm’s client correspondence. NovaChat keeps shortening it to “No worries”.

Every message generates a notification on Pryce’s phone and an email advising him that he has a new message in NovaChat. Replies generated by the app also trigger emails, as do the acknowledgements generated in response to those replies. On Thursday, Pryce received 214 emails about a conversation neither he nor Wren was participating in.

The emails do not contain the messages, because NovaChat is secure. They tell him to open the app to read them, using the same secure system as Medicare, where an email can tell you that you have a message but cannot tell you what it is.

Pryce eventually worked out how to turn off the notification sounds. He now regularly swipes across to the fourth home screen of his iPhone, where the app occupies a space solely for Wren, to check whether anything has happened. Wren sometimes contributes personally, usually to ask why something has not been done yet.

There is plenty to do. Pryce is still working through Nova.AI’s funding documents and has received further correspondence about a will the platform prepared after somebody asked it about a $300 debt. Wren says these should be straightforward matters because Nova has already done most of the work.

Pryce’s father Gordon, a retired partner who remains a consultant to the firm, conducted his correspondence by posted letter and later by fax, which his secretary Maureen operated. He never learned how to use it himself. Maureen has since retired, which has helped with the fax correspondence because nobody else knows how to use it either. The machine is kept for dealing with the ATO.

Daniel said he had considered asking Wren to return to email, but had been too busy checking NovaChat. Wren said the transition was going well.

“We’ve basically eliminated email,” he said.

Pryce received an email notifying him of this.

The Daily Cartland is a work of satire. Sent by NovaChat.