Die With Me - Curious Mobile App of the Week
Last week I wrote about LegalFling.io , a particularly ridiculous app that @didic linked me to. I had no plans of making "weird and silly apps" a weekly column, but then @poet sent me a link to Die With Me. If this keeps up, this is becoming a regular series.
Unlike LegalFling, that is mostly an example of bad use of blockchain technology, Die With Me feels more like a contemporary work of art.
According to the simple app description, Die With Me is
The chat app that you can only use when you have less than 5% battery.
Enter the chatroom full of people with a low battery.
Die together in a chatroom on your way to offline peace.
You can purchase the app on Google Play and iTunes.
App or art?
This app aims at a very specific audience - people who are running out of power on their mobile phone and have nothing better to do with their remaining 5% than talk to strangers in a similar situation.
Given that people don't often waste the last of their power like that, and the fact the app is a paid one, it's safe to assume it's more of a social experiment and a form of contemporary art than an app the developers (Dries Depoorter & David Surprenant) intended be used by the masses. It does, however, hold an interesting novelty effect, and I can see at least a few of my friends investing the $0.99 in trying it out.
Why this is not an app review
I don't like to write about apps that have been released without reviewing them first. I usually download and play around with an app before writing a post about it. But in this case, I ask your forgiveness - I did not purchase this app. Not because I can't afford the 99 cents, but because I have a phobia of low battery.
My LG v10 holds a nice charge, and I never leave the house without my trusty powerbank and a spare cable. The odds of you catching me with less than 25% power is unlikely. So is why letting my phone charge drop to 5% makes me feel uneasy. This I find interesting and it is, without a doubt, one of the developers' intentions; to make people consider how they feel when their mobile phone is about to "die".
- When your mobile turns off, do you "die" with it?
- Can your disconnection from the online world feel like a form of death?
- And is it really a time when you wish to connect with strangers in the same situation, rather than loved ones?
I am grateful to the developers for creating this curious app, even if its main goal is social commentary using the mobile app medium for a new type of contemporary art.
i can't do with out my smart phone for just 2sec,it just can't happen, i am lowba3phobia LOL I made a solar power bank from a solar touch i bought with my previous power batteries, i just had to restructure it into a bank for changing.
still waiting for the day technology will evolve more than this the day will all do be charging our phone through wireless charging ☺
This is so insanely ludicrous it borders on being a work of Genius. A chat room for people to sit and share together the very last 5% of their phone battery - because of course that's the first thing you want to do when running out of charge - talk to strangers! It's a funny old world. Anyway I am just patiently waiting for Chapter 3 of Morgan's First Apprentice - I've bought in extra snacks to get me through the full read.
Porn is coming soon. Tomorrow. :)
Sounds like a great work of art, and the idea is ingenuouse, I mean, how did they come up with it?
I wouldn't use it though. It's interesting, but I'm too busy for this...
I am going to guess alcohol was involved. :P
Oh, definitely, LOL
The idea behind this paid app sounds like a high-school joke. :D
It depends on how close am I to the charger!
Permanent disconnection would feel like a form of death (mentally, socially, and financially) but a temporary one can actually feel like enhanced life awareness (unless the disconnection happens at a too inconvenient moment).
Nope, of course. Maybe this is where the "social experiment" comes into play.
Cheers! : )
Yeah, much like yourself, I'm not likely to ever use this app. I get twitchy if my phone gets below %50 battery. But I definitely agree that it seems super interesting as a concept.
My phone just doesn't get there, ever. I don't leave the house enough or use it out of the house enough for it to ever reach that spot. I have a Meizu M3 Max. It has a 4100 mAh battery that just doesn't run out in a day, and I charge my phone every night. The only times it could come close is if I drive a lot with maps on, but I have a car charger.
thought it was gonna be like Suicide or Euthanasia thing lol
When I first saw the name I thought it was a dating app for suicide bombers. I am a horrible person deep inside... :)
That's what I thought too...oh my God.....
Interesting app. I would definatel⅞y love to die with my battery. This is something creative I hadn't heard of before. Bringing fun out of something annoying like a battery dying brings something different that has been missing in the app world
Yes, exactly. When your cell phone unexpectedly goes off, it feels like a small death. You fell out of society. No one can reach you. You can't contact loved ones. And feel confused. As if you are lost in an unknown world of real life. It would be funny. If it were not so sad. We are all addicted to mobile phones. It is necessary to recognize.
A series on curious apps also seems like it could help with brainstorming new apps, this app however as with all artistic social commentary will most likely not gain much traction amongst the people who could benefit from this.
and there is also the flip side.
I can see this app being misused and have an influx of actual people intending to die together. Then you have the ridiculous situation where uppity parents blame Pokemon for their child's suicide instead of owning up to being pathetic human beings or that the person just needed to get out. But that is just my 2 cents. Anyone want to play blue whale but with voodoo dolls instead?
The app prevents people from using it unless their phone is low on power. And even then - conversations are short. There's no shortage of places and apps for the depressed and suicidal, and I don't see how this one (paid app!) would attract that audience.
edit: if you're looking to brainstorm about apps, find me on discord. I still kinda work in mobile app marketing.
The idea is ingenuouse, but i'm just like you, I have a phobia of low battery.. my phone can rarely gets below %50 battery