“One of the G’s is silent,” Zach Fogg says, “but I’m not sure which one.” He’s talking about his last name, and the line—which is at once dry, self-deprecating and whimsical—suits him.

Donald Glover came by to see ReMorse in action, and the proof is in the selfie.

His partner, Raphie Palefsky-Smith, has a different disposition: Minutes earlier, he had begged, “Please don’t quote me with any profanity until I get into college.” It’s a funny request, because I don’t remember him dropping so much as a dang or shoot. “I’m straight-laced,” he says, sincerely, and I believe him. (Admissions officers: This is one good kid.)

Their partnership seems unlikely, especially since it started with an argument. “We were both reprimanding someone else, over Facebook, for using callbacks,” Zach recalls, referring to a language-specific programming construct. But they couldn’t agree on the alternative—should they use promises, or continuations?

The conversation happened entirely over Facebook—Zach is a sophomore at the University of Maryland, and Raphie is a high school senior in Santa Cruz—and, though they disagreed, they were mutually impressed. The dispute turned into a conversation about hackTECH, and once they arrived they decided to work together.

Zach Fogg, left, and Raphie Palefsky-Smith.

But what would they work on?

Raphie clearly has an interest in unorthodox messaging systems—though he’s quick to point out that he’s “not obsessed or anything,” he described three different systems which would let people communicate in unusual ways. Initially, he wanted to create a bluetooth mesh network which would let people at crowded events message each other without hitting an overloaded cell network. Then he described an Android app which people could use by affixing NFC stickers to their fingertips and tapping on their phones. And third, he described the project they now call “ReMorse.”

“We scrapped ten ideas to get to this one,” Zach says, motioning towards his screen. On it, the terminal prints out dots and dashes and decoded characters. Their sample string, “HELL YEAH,” is a reference to Dave Fontenot, a community leader and savvy hustler who managed to get Zach and Raphie a free Pebble smartwatch for them to play with. And it’s on that same Pebble that Raphie has diligently typed out “HELL YEAH,” in morse code, using a pair of little buttons.

The Pebble in action.

It’s impressive—both the connection on the Pebble and Raphie’s apparent fluency in morse code. “So how do you receive the messages?” I ask.

Raphie and Zach want ReMorse to be extremely flexible. A recipient could get the message through email, or through a text message, or even through a series of vibrations on her own Pebble. Of course, this requires her to know morse code as well, but this seems to be the team’s favorite format.

“You can’t look at your wrist in class,” Zach explains. When I protest—it’s just like checking your watch, I say—he smiles.

“But this way you can talk to your friends and look your teacher in the eye.”