Viral ‘Are You Lifeless?’ iOS app checks if you happen to’re alive, however Android customers aren’t lacking out

A grim, new iPhone app known as “Are You Lifeless?” goes viral by tapping into the very actual concern of dying unnoticed.

The app’s idea is brutally simple. Customers should faucet a giant inexperienced button each two days to verify in the event that they’re nonetheless alive. In the event that they don’t, the app alerts their chosen emergency contact that one thing could also be fallacious. That’s it. There’s no well being monitoring, no sensors, only a digital “Are you lifeless” button.

Are You Lifeless? is a paid app and in addition obtainable internationally as “Demumu.” As BBC notes on this article, it has develop into extraordinarily standard amongst younger individuals dwelling alone in Chinese language cities, the place thousands and thousands work distant from their household. With China anticipated to have round 200 million one-person households by 2030, the concern of dying alone has turned this morbid app right into a cultural hit.

However whereas Are You Lifeless? feels new, Android customers have already got one thing very related, and in lots of circumstances, a lot better.

On Android telephones, customers can obtain Google’s Private Security app and its built-in Security Verify function for a similar function. It’s simply not as grimly named, however Security Verify helps you to set a check-in timer to verify if you happen to’re protected. In the event you don’t affirm you’re okay, your cellphone will robotically share your location and ship an alert to your emergency contacts. No app obtain required. The one limitation right here is that you would be able to’t arrange a recurring Security Verify with Google’s Private Security app; it’s a one-off timer that it’s essential to manually begin every time. When you arrange the Are You Lifeless? app, you don’t should re-arm it like Security Verify.

Nonetheless, there are different Android apps that supply related options, like Comfortable Security or Life360, each of which set off alerts if somebody misses a scheduled check-in. The distinction is that Are You Lifeless? makes the concern specific, whereas Android’s instruments have been quietly doing the identical job, simply with friendlier names.