A smartphone app developed by a Sheppey business allows users to receive a personalised phone message from Father Christmas.

Santa Calls You lets parents to customise a prerecorded message by inputting their child’s gender, what present they want and whether they have been naughty or nice.

If they are on the naughty list, they can then pick a reason so when St Nicholas rings, he encourages them to get in his good books before Christmas.

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They can even set a time delay to make it a surprise when his picture appears on screen like a normal phone call.

There is also a Santa calls parents option with no message so mums and dads can fake a private conversation.

The app is already proving popular despite only being released on Thursday. In its first day it reached number 48 in the Apple Store’s entertainment chart.

It was created in the space of two weeks by Island firm 3dotJ in workspace provided at the Innov8 on Sheppey business incubator in Trinity Road, Sheerness.

Matt Heaney, 22, of Sunnyfields Drive, Minster, provided the coding and wrote the script.

Dean Johnson, 25, of Coronation Road, Sheerness, did the recording, mixing and sound effects and Aaron Negus 24, of Alexandra Road, Sheerness, created the user interface and graphics and made the music.

Rupert Lawrence, 23, of Preston Hall Gardens, Warden Bay, helped with promotion.

Santa’s voice was provided by a friend of the company, Kenny Allison.

Santa Calls You costs 69p from the app store. There is also a free version with adverts.

Video: Watch a child use the app for the first time

But how much can a startup company expect to make from an app?

“It’s hard to tell,” Mr Negus said. “The guy who made Flappy Bird was making £56,000 a day, Our free version of the app has adverts so we could be making money from that but then we could also do totally rubbish and not make anything.”

The company had no budget, carried out all the work itself and its only expenditure was a £60 developers’ licence.

Previous 3dotJ products include a smartphone game called Puk It and its next project will involve penguins, however, further details are being kept under wraps.