Wakie App Turns Strangers Into Alarm Clocks

It was only a matter of time before social media found another use beyond sharing cute pictures of kittens and the grandkids along-side 140-character pearls of wisdom: cue Wakie. We all accept that alarm clocks are a necessary evil, with most of us using our smartphones to interrupt our peaceful slumber. What if I told you that a perfect stranger could take care of this for you by placing a phone call at a pre-arranged time? Wakie can and will. My fascination with this app started as amusement (with terms to describe users like 'sleepies' to identify people waiting on a call to wake them up), and progressed quickly to some kind of strange addiction. Using the service is free, and your account makes it possible for Wakie to match you with people ready to place the call. The service is as anonymous as you let it be (so be careful)… you input your mobile phone number (but the app uses this information behind the scenes to patch users together without divulging the real details for anybody on the call), you get to choose a username (which should ideally be easy to pronounce, even for those whose English may not be as good as yours) and shouldn't include your last name. If you happen to miss their call (or sleep through it somehow), be careful that your voicemail message doesn't divulge anything you wouldn't want a stranger to know. Once setup is complete, you set an alarm just like you would in any other smartphone app (complete with a backup if you choose). At the designated time, your phone will ring. Prefer to make the calls rather than receive them? Choose to wake sleepies and the app will alert you when somebody is ready for you. What you say is up to you, but Wakie encourages you to be respectful and enforces a 60-second time limit (so no awkward goodbyes). If somehow there isn't anybody available to make the call to wake you up, the automated system will pick up any slack (though my experience is that there is never a shortage of people willing to interrupt your sleep). Wakie has been available for Android since earlier this fall, but iPhone users only got access this week. So far Wakie has delivered over 30 million wake up calls to 1.5 million users –you should be one of them! Wakie App Turns Strangers Into Alarm Clocks is a post from: Good e-Reader

URL: http://goodereader.com/blog/spotlight-on-android/wakie-app-turns-strangers-into-alarm-clocks