A dad's brutally genius invention makes it impossible for your teen to ignore your texts.

It was one missed text too many for father Nick Herbert when he realised giving his son a mobile phone did not mean he would actually respond to his calls and texts, claiming his phone was ‘on silent’.

Funny that.

So he created ReplyASAP, an app which would force his child to respond to his texts, or risk their phone being frozen, or sound off an alarm if their mobile is ‘on silent’.

Speaking to Digital Trends, Herbert said that point of the app isn't to punish your children, necessarily.

“It is key to discuss with the child that they understand the reason for having it. It is not a punishment or a tool for tracking them, nor will it remotely lock [or] freeze their phone,” he said.

“It is simply a means of allowing them to carry on using their phone however they want, but giving a means of getting [them] an important message when [you] need to.”

We're sure our teenage selves would have despised it, but for parents, the app is absolutely brilliant.

We translate what parents of teenagers really mean. If you are one, you'll understand.

It's a little bit evil, kind of amazingly ingenious and 100 per cent guaranteed to get your child to call you back ASAP.

But by all means, don't let that stop you, you can use the app with partners, friends, your adult children, or even extended family members.

While you're given your first connection free, for a small fee (they range from £0.99 ($1.77 AUD) for one extra connection to £12.99 ($23.30 AUD) for 20) you can add more people to your contact list, which means you'll be able to send and receive messages to them. They will however need to download the app too.

Unfortunately at the moment the app is only available to Android users (sorry iPhone fans), but an iOS version will be available very soon.

Happy texting.

Have you tried this app or would you consider downloading it? Or do you have another method to get your kids to quickly reply to your calls and texts? Tell us in a comment below.