“Are You Dead?”, an app that sounds the alarm if a user does not check in every 48 hours, was one of China’s top-selling paid apps as the country’s growing class of solo dwellers flocked to download it.<\/p>\n
More and more people in the world’s second largest economy are living alone as marriage rates decline and the number of elderly empty-nesters grows.<\/p>\n
Created by Moonscape Technologies, the app pitches itself as a “safety tool crafted for solo dwellers… to make solitary life more reassuring”.<\/p>\n
Although its blunt name has divided opinion, it had still shot to the top of the Chinese iOS store’s list of paid apps by Sunday, and has remained there.<\/p>\n
The Chinese name “sileme”, a play on the name of a popular food delivery app, is a curt phrasing that translates to “are you dead” or simply “dead?”.<\/p>\n
With a ghost as its icon, the app takes users to a landing page where they are asked to enter their name and an emergency contact’s email.<\/p>\n
“If you haven’t checked in for two days, the system will send an email to your emergency contact,” a version available internationally tells users.<\/p>\n
On the streets of Beijing, some of the app’s target market were dubious.<\/p>\n
Yaya Song, a 27-year-old IT worker who lives alone, said she was intrigued but that it cost too much.<\/p>\n
“If it were free, I’d download it to try out – even charging one yuan (\u20ac0.12) would be reasonable for a trial – but eight yuan (\u20ac0.96) feels a bit expensive.”<\/p>\n
If the worst happened, employed people’s workplaces would generally realise something was wrong before family and friends, she said, adding that the app’s name “feels a bit too violent”.<\/p>\n
Student Huang Zixuan agreed.<\/p>\n
“If I wanted my grandparents to download this app, I probably wouldn’t be able to bring myself to say the name,” the 20-year-old said.<\/p>\n
‘Are you alive?’ <\/p>\n
Others saw the appeal.<\/p>\n
In 2024, people who lived alone accounted for around one fifth of all Chinese households, compared to 15% a decade earlier, official data shows.<\/p>\n
“I guess as we reach middle age, everyone starts to worry about their own affairs after death,” said 36-year-old office worker Sasa Wang.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the former editor of state-backed tabloid Global Times, Hu Xijin, praised the app’s potential, especially for the elderly.<\/p>\n
He suggested changing its name to “Are you alive?”<\/p>\n
“This way it will give elderly people who use it more psychological comfort,” he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
The app’s account responded on social media that it would “seriously look into and consider” changing the name.<\/p>\n
But others begged them to keep it.<\/p>\n
“It’s good to face the issue of death,” the top-liked comment read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Are You Dead?”, an app that sounds the alarm if a user does not check in every 48…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[61,60,202,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-242496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}