A new app called Binder is promising to take the pain out of communicating a breakup to user's significant others.
The app started off as merely a joke but some fear it may be being used by downloaders for its expressed purpose.
Binder is a new app available on the Google Play Store, which purports to make it easy for users to break up with their soon to be former lovers. The name of the app is a play on the words "binned her" which is slang in the UK, where the app was developed, for having dumped your female mate. The name is intentionally similar to the popular Tinder dating app, which is currently all the rage among singles looking for the love of their lives, or just a quick hookup.
The app asks the user to input the name, gender and number of their significant other and choose a reason from among a list of options as to why they are ending the relationship. Among the options are "it's better to have loved and lost, so, on that note, get lost" and "our relationship is as patchy as your beard."
The app then creates a card for the recipient similar to the ones featured on Tinder, and when the user swipes right, a text message along with a prerecorded voicemail is sent to do the dirty work. The harsh voicemail announces, for example, "Your boyfriend doesn't love you anymore. He hates your face. He thinks you're a bore. In fact, he is sick in his mouth whenever he sees you around."
While this may seem over the top, the reasoning is intentional. The app was intended as a joke, and simply to promote a Scottish lager, Tennant. That hasn't stopped some from objecting due to fear that some of the thousands who have downloaded the app in the UK (the only area where it is currently available) are actually using it seriously and that the shortcut-heavy culture being created by such technology is turning once civilized members of society into sociopaths.
