Wakie App
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Overall
I was recently introduced to a fascinating new App – Wakie.
Wakie defines itself as a “..a community of people waking people. Your alarm clock reinvented!”
So what is it? It’s an Alarm App with an incredible twist – you’re woken up by a real person!
It sounds a little weird and creepy, but bear with me I’ll explain.
So, when you register with Wakie you set up a simple profile, with your name (you don’t have to have your ACTUAL name), age, an avatar, your location (country nothing exact) and your mobile number. Then you’re good to go!
The App is divided into five separate tabs
Community – This is akin to a Facebook Wall that every user can post on, to be honest, I don’t like this bit, it’s a bit open to abuse, anyone can write what they like, and it’s policed (ish) by moderators. Some of the discussion is okay, most of it is shit. I think this aspect of the app lets it down and I think as the app grows could be open to more abuse. Anyway – let’s continue to the positives.
Alarms – This is the bread and butter of the App – The alarms! This is pretty similar to any other alarm setting on a phone and fairly self explanatory.
Wake people up – This is where the magic happens, there is a number indicator, showing the amount of people at that moment requiring a wake up call. Because Wakie is only supported in English speaking countries, there are pockets of the day when this will mostly be at ‘0’, but when the UK or America is waking up, there are lots of people. If there’s no one to wake, you can press ‘Notify me when there is someone to wake’ and you’ll get a push notification when there is a ‘Sleepie’ requiring waking up.
If there is someone hit ‘Wake someone up’ and you’ll be connected to that Sleepie to wake them up. The calls are placed over your WiFi / 3G/4G connection – so you need a good connection to play. The service is completely anonymous so no one ever gets your phone number, and it doesn’t cost you anything to place a call. Once you’re connected to the Sleepie you have 60 seconds to wake them up, you get a beep at 50 seconds to warn you the call is over soon.
It’s completely up to you how you wake your Sleepie – some people just talk, others sing – it’s up to you – most of my calls have just been polite chatter, asking how they are, where they are, and wishing them a good day. I’ve mostly been woken by cheery American folk whose annoying good mood doesn’t fail to make you smile.
Activity – This is a notification area where you can see any response to posts you’ve made in the ‘Community’ tab – and you can also rate your Sleepy or Wakie as ‘Cool’ or ‘So-So’. Apparently if you rate them as ‘Cool’ you’ll be matched with similar Sleepies or Wakies in the future. You can also report abuse here too. In the settings you can choose to record each call too and these are all saved and playable from the Activity tab.
More – Not sure why it’s called this – it’s essentially your ‘Profile’ tab, where you have stats on the amount of Wakeups and Woken Ups, the Settings and Help are tucked away here too.
So I’ve been playing with Wakie for a week now, and I’ve really, really enjoyed it – it’s a fun little past time going into the App and seeing if there’s anyone who needs waking, and giving them a call. The only downside is Voicemail – naturally if the person’s phone ‘rings out’ then you’re normally transferred to their voice-mail. This is where people can lose their anonymity slightly because most default voice-mail messages include that person’s mobile number. If you get put through to a voicemail there is a button to ‘Hang Up and Report Voicemail’ pressing this ends the call and also doesn’t count towards you stats, and you’re not asked to rate the call.
The technology behind it generally works well, I’ve had a few instances where the sound has been a little choppy, or there’s been a slight delay, but it’s mostly good! Despite being ‘social’ there’s no facility to ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ anyone on the app – it’s all very random and anonymous, which is good, although the ‘Community’ section needs some work. I’ve only had one slightly ‘odd’ waking up call which was a guy saying something in a foreign language several times.
So, download it, give it a go – it’s available on the ‘Big Three’ platforms – Android, Apple and Windows Phone and let me know what you think in the comments.
