Spark

Die With Me connects people before their phones die

Die with me is an app that only works when you have less than 5% battery life left on your phone. That allows you to access a chat room that connects you to other people with dying phones, so you you have company while you die.
A view into the Die With Me chat room. (Bieke Depoorter)

Once, when artist Dries Depoorter was visiting a strange city, he got lost trying to make his way back to his hotel. While searching for his hotel, his phone started to die.

Dries and David at IDFA International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam in 2017 . (Nichon Glerum)
Out of that experience came the idea for the app Die With Me. Dries worked with Canadian developer David Surprenant to create an app that could only be used when someone's phone had less than 5 per cent battery life left. The app allows users into a chat room, where other users with dying phones can talk to one another.

The app itself is an art project that reflects on how dependent we are on our phones. But people have actually been using it. On average, 17 people are in the chatroom at once.

"I think they're really curious," Dries said, "and I think it's the first app that uses this technique"

David said that users were reporting that this was the first time many of them had let their batteries get that low.

"Even when they get the first alert on iOS or Android they run for a charger."

According to Dries, Apple is no longer allowing them to update their app.