Wakie Wakie
The new 2015 to 2016 school year has just begun and nearly every student faces the same problem, waking up on time for class. Fortunately, for those of us who are tired of using the boring and antiquated alarm clock or the slightly less humdrum radio alarm, an exciting new way of waking up has presented itself. Available on both Android and iPhone, Wakie, the self proclaimed social alarm clock app, gives users the opportunity to be woken up by a one minute long phone call from someone anywhere around the world. Focusing on quick conversations, the app gives you a warning at the 50 second mark and at 60 seconds you and your partner are disconnected from the call. Rather than using the same repetitive alarm, you have the opportunity to meet someone new, every day, and then never talk to them again. I have been awoken by other users from the Phillipines, Australia, Texas, and other countries and states which has made waking up slightly less drab.
However, Wakie is able to do much more than simply give you a wake up call to the new day. The completely anonymous app gives the user the ability to talk to others about problems in their life, sing a song to their partner, wish someone goodnight, or simply have a conversation. To initiate one of these conversations a user can use the main menu to participate in someone else’s call or join a queue of several hundred other users and wait a short 30 seconds if they would like to choose the topic of the conversation. While the wake up alarm is limited to a one minute call, all other calls are unlimited. Since the app is mostly run by the community, the quality of each call can vary. However, the moderation team tries to censor and punish users who break the anti-harassment policy held by the app, making the experience more pleasant for the users.
The app executes the idea of a chance based social app superbly. It can be an extremely fun app to use with a small yet rapidly growing community. Wakie does have some technical issues that are constantly being hotfixed or patched and it seems as if the app has one bug or another at any given moment. Regardless, the app deserves a solid 9 out of 10 starts for delivering a crisp, lively, and exciting experience.
