A nice fellow from Miami woke me up this morning. It was an awkward phone call. What do you say to a complete stranger at 7:00 am?
There has been a lot of buzz in the last 24 hours about an app called “Wakie”.
Trending on the Apple App Store last night, Wakie is a free app that is branded as a “Social Alarm Clock.” The app allows you to receive an anonymous wake-up call from a complete stranger. The concept behind the app is that people repeatedly hit the snooze button on their alarm clock. It is said that being woken up by a phone call forces conversation, which stimulates the brain, wakes you up, and is a more positive way to start the day.
Setting Up Wakie
When you first sign up for the app, it requires your country code and phone number. They do say that “your number is anonymous and will never be given away,” so make of that what you will. I did it anyway, what is privacy in the 21st century?? After you enter your number they send you a confirmation code by SMS. MINE DID NOT COME UNTIL 12 HOURS LATER. What is this??? I was way too impatient so I opted for a “voice call” which sent me the code much more quickly. They then ask for your birth date and gender to more “accurately match you up.” At this point I was getting serious Tinder vibes…….
BOOM. I am now part of the “Wakie” community. I had the option of setting up a profile, or even linking Wakie to Facebook (where they will link my photos and name) which I opted not to do. I had a feeling this app would get weird so I chose not to put a photo.
The “Community”
The icon on the bottom right leads to a news-feed style messaging board which mainly consists of three things: People saying “hi”, people giving shout outs to those who woke them/people they woke, and lastly (unfortunately) a lot of REALLY THIRSTY TROLLS. The maturity level was appalling. Girls who opted to put nice pictures of themselves on their profile were getting trolled SO HARD, people were just being generally creepy, in an “omegle” kind of way, if you know what I mean…..If this app ever introduces picture messaging…………. o_O. Reading the message board left me feeling a little weirded out. What on Earth was I going to get in the morning….
Alarms
It is very straightforward to set up alarms on Wakie. Wakie even promises that if no one is available to call me at my preferred time, I will get a call from a robo-lady. This did not happen to me, but from what I hear they are very pleasant robot ladies. Wakie also gives you the option also have the option to set up a “back-up alarm,” in the case that you sleep like the dead or do not trust Wakie to wake you up. I had serious doubts about this app, so I also set another normal back-up alarm on my phone.
And then… at 7:15…my phone rang.
When I looked at my caller-id, it just showed four random numbers, so I did not know the number of who was calling or where they were calling from. This is good. I answered with a groggy “Hello.” All I heard was white noise….then a thickly accented voice said my name….and then crackling. Okay this shit is WEIRD. Wakie repeatedly says that in order to wake someone up, you need a strong internet connection, I am assuming this person did not have the greatest connection, hence the crackling. I held on for a few more seconds, and the voice says “What are you doing right now?” OH THIS IS CREEPY. I’M OUT. Hung up on that.
I must admit I was kind of prepared for that after reading the message boards. BUT I WASN’T GIVING UP! I quickly set another alarm for 5 minutes later, and boom, my phone rang again! This time is was a very cheerful man from Miami! A much more pleasant experience, he wished me a good day and hoped the snow wasn’t getting me down. The call was brief, but I hung up feeling positive!
Waking People Up
Alright, now I wanted to try to wake people up. You tap the yellow bar that says “Wake Someone Up” and then it proceeds to “search for matches.” It took around ten minutes, and then I had a “sleepie” to wake up! I tentatively accepted the call, and waited as the robo lady connected me. AHHH someone answered. WHAT DO I SAY? It was some guy from the States, he sounded very groggy. We exchanged good mornings and celebrated the fact it was Friday. That’s it, that’s all. Pretty simple! I wanted to try again and I opted to wake up another person. This time I was routed to a male’s voice mail. I left a little message and moved on with my life.
Final Thoughts
Aside from all the trolls, this app is intriguing. It is also awkward. Talking on the phone to a stranger is hard!! If I do this again, I will definitely take a few seconds to figure out what I will say, because there is a lot of awkward silence.
I am also curious about the intentions of this app. The two calls I received were both from males, and the two people I called were also male. I am seriously wondering if they intentionally match up the opposite sex. If this is the case, I will be a little disappointed, THIS IS NOT A DATING APP. DO NOT ENCOURAGE THE TROLLS.
ALSO, I had the sound turned-on on my phone. I am not sure if this app would work with the sound off, as it is the ringer of your phone waking you up. Additionally, all of my calls came in a few minutes before my actual wake-up time. My 7:15 call came at 7:12, but I understand timing would be difficult with this app.
Yes, many people are curious about privacy when it comes to this app. If you have doubts about privacy, just don’t use the app. Personally, I am over-trusting in technology, and it hasn’t hurt me yet! The worst problem I see is troll harassment. You can flag posts as inappropriate, but there seems to be a need for a moderator on the message board. Reading those posts is really a turn-off.
So technically the creepy guy woke me up, not the guy from Miami, but I like to think that Mr.Miami is a more accurate reflection of the app. I have a feeling that this app will gain much more momentum in the next few days. As long as you understand that trolls are gonna troll, troll, troll, troll, troll, this app is seriously worth a try!
p.s. eat ur vegetables
talk veggies to me 