Wake Me Up is a Chinese social alarm clock mobile application that allows strangers to wake you up from your deep slumber.
Driven by user-generated content (UGC), Wake Me Up collects an inventory of audio alarms recorded by the users and randomly matches various alarms to respective users.
The objective of this app is to motivate people to wake up on time through the use of social, and you could potentially even befriend strangers through those countless alarm calls you received.
Developed by a group of 15 from Xi An, Wake Me Up has acquired over two million users since its release last November.
The app fundamentally functions as an alarm clock with improvisations coming from two aspects: customized audio alarm recording and the social factor.
Users can expect to awake on the dot and be motivated to find out who woke them up. You will be unable to see the profile of the person who woke you up if you fail to wake up within 90 seconds from the alarm – you snooze, you lose!
Here are some key functions to look out for:
• Setting alarm: Set the time and frequency just like any other ordinary alarm clocks but here’s the thing – you can choose to hear an alarm from a male/female/friends only. And you will be randomly matched to a stranger (of your preferred choice) waking you up when the alarm rings the next day.
• Waking others up: You have a choice of setting your audio alarm recording broadcasted to your friends only or strangers too. Need inspiration for the content of your audio recording? Wake Me Up has a “Shake A Dream” function for users to shake (literally) out what others dream to hear from their alarms.
• Social: Peek into the profile of the kind one who woke you up and interact simply through messages.
Wake Me Up leverages on social to make the chore of waking up much more bearable and with a twist of fun. However, UGC-driven models are often questioned for its quality control.
Bad audio recordings by users or advertisers trying to get heard could heavily damage a good user experience and product quality.
That said, the team behind Wake Me Up has plans to implement a privacy function to potentially curb that problem. Furthermore, thoughts about hardware-software integration of smart furniture are brewing in progress.