What's worse than being woken up? Being woken up by a complete stranger. Wakie, a new alarm clock app, allows users to wake-up with the help of a complete stranger. In a stroke of awkwardness, the alarm clock app lets strangers call you up for a personal wake-up call. Because regular alarm clocks are just way too boring now days.
Wakie users consist of the callers, called "Wakies" and the people who need to be woken up, who are referred to as "Sleepyheads." Identities and numbers are kept "safe and anonymous," but the country where you come from will be shown. Simply use your number to sign in to be connected to Wakie users. Though in a bizarre twist, Wakie connects you with users who are of the opposite sex and around your age for your awkward wake-up call. It's like an alarm clock and an uncomfortable dating site all in one. It even gives you the option of rating your "wakie."
The one-minute wake up call gives users only enough time to say "hello" and "are you awake." If there are no Wakie users available, you are sent a lesser entertaining automatic call, but at least you won't oversleep.
While the idea seems interestingly innovative, the app is not so new. There is an international version of the app called Budist for those who speak Russian. Wakie has existed in the U.S. since 2011 with a Russian target audience. The app has now funded $1 million to further expand to other markets.
Users everywhere can deliver wake-up calls, but only those in the U.S., Canada, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong can receive the personal alarm clock. 30 million wake-up calls were placed from Russia's 1.5 million users.
This idea has been tried before by Talkoclock, but failed.
The iPhone version of the app is awaiting approval. Wakie is available for Android and Windows Phone, and can be downloaded for free.
