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
The title immediately made me think of a book series where vampires operate a suicide hotline.
Sadly the app is a wee bit less morbid than that. Interesting concept though!
A shame that; like you, I despise a low battery and having no "lifeline" most assuredly makes me uneasy. Tend to keep it above 30% at all costs, I shudder when I think of friends who's phones are constantly at 1-5% when I'm with them.
Those sick bastards
Vampire suicide hotline sounds better than my idea for suicide bomber dating app... :P
I wonder what the app creator was thinking when he had the idea to create this app, it's such a strange concept, funny though.
I might drop 99 cents on this app just to try it out.
Thanks for the content keep up the good work
Good concept
Beautiful theme
Thanks for sharing with us this app
Yes I agree with you
If these were its merits
It is suitable for urgent and necessary purposes
Lol, nice concept idea for an app. It has always been scary when my battery hits 5%
Definitely a great app for an iPhone! I would recomend lol!
very interesting post, I really like posting @techslut.
Very good.
How are you friend
oh my God, its name showing that it is really very dangrious
No, it's not a dating app for suicide bomber. But yeah, I thought so too. :D
Ha! I think this is brilliant! Definitely "App Art". Also I'm glad this isn't the mobile version of the website from Suicide Circle
I don't know what that circle is, and I don't want to know.
Well, using as many buzzwords as I can but without getting into it - it's a harboiled Japanese psych thriller / crime noir film from Y2K or thereabouts
Oh okay. A horror movie of a sort. Got it.
Haha yes... adjusted for inflation, it's almost as scary as a dead phone
Wooooooooooooooooo wait this app has been realeased? But if your explanation of this g is actuallywill say it's totally weird honestly, why will I want to use a die with me app? Besides what's the essence of chatting when your battery is at 3%?
A dead phone battery certainly isn't what I thought when I saw the post title, but I have a somewhat grimdark mind. It sounds like a cool little experiment, but like most everyone here, I would never pay for it, and almost nver let my phone get anywhere near dying.
@techslut you gave me a good laugh, lol. Insanity can be so funny at times, and this app proves that there are people for everything and anything. Thank you.
So intriguing what people come up with for apps,
I like you have a bit of a phobia for my battery tonever get to low, I do have a battery pack in my backpack and will charge up my battery every chance i get I like it to be fully powered and ready to go at any time LOL
I wonder how many people have paid for and installed it it now intrigues me lOL
I am like you. I need my power. And I am also curious as to who bought it and WHY.
Yes that is what I am also wondering, seem salmost bizarre to me but I guess each to their own
Isn't it just as bizarre that we cannot live without this device? :)
over the Holidays I set myself a couple of days where except for a few minutes at or after meals I would stay off my device,
Not sure i will ever commit to that again LOL
I was curious on google store it shows it has between 1000 and 5000 Download,
So even at least 1000 people felt the need for an app they can only use when battery is almost dead and cost $1 and I thought I was weird lOL
nice to read this post you explore some nice fact that matters the reality we are very closely to our phone app like that will be useful if its work if I not get wrong
and let me tell you I'm a graphic designer and know apps designing if you want my help feel free to contact me. I like your concept
This is so random! Interesting thought process to the creator of this app
I will download this. I do not have a phone that holds a good charge. It will make for a good expirement :) see what I did there
Beatiful post, true...
Please cheack out my drawings
The concept is interesting!
So I read the title and immediately thought of people on their literal death beds that might be feeling alone in those moments. So transitioning from that to 5% phone battery definitely made the battery issue feel insignificant.
That being said, yeah, 5% is scary times. Certainly nobody gets that low on purpose. And I use the word low purposefully LOL. You become afraid, scared, panicked. Interesting concept. I'd assume it's a social experiment rather than a money-maker.
It would be real fun to talk with strangers in such situation, Wish you don't end up with dumb teenagers talking shit!
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Ok so... this is my official comment now :P
First of... WOW.
That's a sad wow. A 'wtf' wow. Like... ok, I'm addicted to my phone too but really now? If I could I would use the message app with 5% to text people I know and love not strangers!
The Era of mIRC died many years ago...or that's what I thought. Seriously, wtf...
Now though, to answer to your questions...
When/If my phone dies my 'death' depends on how much I need it the moment it happens. If I'm lost for example and I have the GPS on and it dies on me and I'm at a foreign country/city, at night, with no people around I will definitely freak out, yes. Otherwise, when I see I'm running low I let 'my people' know so if it dies, I'm in the clear.
Now... the online world in general... To me, being offline (if and when I manage, even for a little bit) when I choose it, it's liberation. When I don't choose it myself, for example I'm camping in the mountains and have no signal, then yes, I feel pain. Not death, but definitely pain...
Last question/answer : As I said before, never strangers above loved ones. I mean...what's the point? Just to talk? I'd rather talk to myself then, yes, like the crazy witch old lady of the village...
I hope my input together with other people's will help to get some conclusions on this new way of being...
Cheers @techslut and thanks for that - maybe it's a wake up call to make shit like this stop...
@techslut this is actually a cool idea for a weekly topic post :) Best wishes.
I dont wana die, lol!
This is so bad for your battery though!! You shouldn't let it run flat if you can avoid it.
Is there a 'Live With Me' App for people who chat with their phones plugged in?? Lol