New App With Grim Name Made for People Living Alone Surges in Popularity
The app requires users to check in every two days to confirm they are alive.
Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty
A low-cost smartphone app with a blunt premise has shot to the top of China’s paid app rankings. Known as “Are You Dead?” or “Dead Yet?” the app prompts users to regularly confirm they are alive by tapping a check-in button. If they miss the deadline, a designated contact is automatically notified. Released in mid-2025, the app surged in popularity at the start of 2026, as the number of people living by themselves climbs. Demographers estimate that China could reach 200 million single-person households within the decade, a shift that has fueled demand for tools offering basic reassurance and emergency backup. The app positions itself as a digital safeguard for solo dwellers and has sparked widespread discussion online about isolation and mortality. Critics have called the app’s name unnecessarily bleak, though its developers say a rebrand is under consideration. Priced at about $1.15, the app has also found international success and was built on a shoestring budget by three founders in their 20s.
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