Disturbing ‘Are you Dead’ app takes over country as concerned users fear dying alone

The app was launched quietly last May, but has recently seen a torrent of young people in download it, with some fearing that ‘people living alone might die unnoticed’

A bonkers app is asking people to check in occasionally to make sure they are still alive. All that “Are You Dead?” requires users to do is press its massive green button every couple of days.

If they don’t, the person’s chosen emergency contact will be contacted to tell them that there could be something seriously wrong with the person in question. This all sounds morbidly ridiculous and, when it was released last May, the app hardly garnered any attention.

However, in the past couple of weeks loads of young people living in cities alone in China have been downloading the disturbing app.

It has now become the most downloaded app in China, costing just eight yuan (85p). The massive surge in downloads comes against the backdrop of a dramatic societal shift.

Experts say the timing is perfect. Research suggests that by 2030, China could have up to 200 million one-person households, according to Global Times.

Millions of people are living, working, and eating solo in addition to quietly worrying about what would happen if something went wrong. The app describes itself as a “safety company companion… whether you’re a solo office worker, a student living away from home, or anyone choosing a solitary lifestyle”.

Users on Chinese social media haven’t held back either. One person wrote: “People who live alone at any stage of their life need something like this, as do introverts, those with depression, the unemployed and others in vulnerable situations.”

Another user was even more candid and shared: “There is a fear that people living alone might die unnoticed, with no-one to call for help. I sometimes wonder, if I died alone, who would collect my body?”

Built by a tiny team of three mysterious developers, said to be born after 1995, in Zhengzhou, Henan, it reportedly cost just 1,000 yuan ($106) to make and was initially free to download. One of its founders, known as Mr Guo, said he plans to sell 10% of the company for a million yuan, reports the BBC.

Wilson Hou, 38, who lives roughly 62 miles from his family works in the capital city of Beijing and returns home to his wife and child twice a week, opened up about why he uses the app. He said: “I worry that if something happened to me, I could die alone in the place I rent and no-one would know.

“That’s why I downloaded the app and I set my mum as my emergency contact.” “Are You Dead?” sound like “Si-le-ma” in Chinese, which sounds like the name of another popular food app in the country, “E-le-ma” or “Are You Hungry Yet?”

Moonscape Technologies – the company behind the bleak app – has since said it is weighing up a potential name change due to people complaining about its grimness, with some users suggesting “Are you ok?” or “How are you?”

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