If you’ve ever wanted an easy way to let your family know that you are, in fact, alive, there’s an app for that.
‘Are You Dead?’, otherwise called Si Le Ma?, is a Chinese mobile phone app that costs 99p in the UK.
You’re asked to check in every two days by tapping a large green button with a cartoon ghost in the centre.
If not, the app will get in touch with your emergency contact and inform them that you may be in trouble.
The appointed contact will get a notification reading: ‘An important notice. I’m [name]. I’ve been inactive for multiple consecutive days.
‘Come check my physical condition.’
Users don’t need to create an account or input their mobile phone numbers or email addresses to use the app.
Demumu, as it’s known in the UK, is the second-most downloaded utility app on the Apple App Store today.
It’s described on the store as being designed for solo travellers, students studying abroad and people living ‘solitary lifestyles’.
The description adds: ‘Alone but not lonely, safety by your side.’
‘Are You Dead?’ isn’t new – it launched last June to little fanfare in China, but it’s since soared to the top of download charts after going viral.
Young people are now buying the app in droves, seemingly no longer caring about the superstitions that put people off to begin with.
Would you use an app like ‘Are You Dead Yet?’?
-
Yes, it seems like a helpful tool.
-
No, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Death is largely taboo in China, with views formed from centuries of tradition and religion. Even speaking about death is seen as unlucky.
Some users on the social media network Weibo have criticised the name, with one writing: ‘Death has both a literal and sociological meaning. If it were changed to “Are You Alive?” I would pay to download it.’
The app’s founder, Lü, told the Guangzhou Daily that the app’s name won’t be changing anytime soon.
Lü said: ‘Death is something everyone must face. Perhaps only when people know the point of their own death can they better face the present.’
The team behind ‘Are You Dead Yet?’ is made up of just three people born in the 1990s.
As much as the app might bring to mind Bridgette Jones fearing she’d die single and alone, her body half-eaten by dogs, the app has a serious use.
Lü said the idea behind the app came from conversations he saw online about people describing their fear of dying alone and no one noticing.
One message on Weibo that Metro saw read: ‘If I suddenly die one day, will anyone remember me?’
Wilson Hou, 38, who lives about 62 miles away from his family, told the BBC that he’s added his mum as his contact on Si Le Ma?.
‘I worry that if something happened to me, I could die alone in the place I rent and no one would know,’ he said.
Up to 200million people are predicted to be living by themselves in China by 2030, according to the state-owned media outlet Global Times.
Last year, 8.4million people lived alone in the UK, up 11% from the year before.
Elderly people residing on their own are behind the rise, with nearly one in two people living solo being over 65.
Lü said that worries about older people falling or suffering an illness without anyone realising was one of the main drivers of creating the app.
The ‘Are You Dead?’ Weibo account posted yesterday that they have been flooded with interview requests and calls from investors.
‘Frankly, facing this ever-increasing exposure, I’m also under immense mental pressure,’ the post said.
It added: ‘Here, I also offer my motto: We only have one life. I firmly believe that we Chinese are no less capable than anyone else.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: New Chinese embassy to have ‘secret basement’ near highly sensitive cables
MORE: Chinese impersonator is making a killing off his impression of Trump
MORE: Flying taxis that can do a 22-mile journey in 10 minutes to take off this year
