Wakie: would you like to be woken up by a stranger?

Wakie, a new app that substitutes a call from a stranger for your
usual alarm clock, is taking the internet by storm. But does it work –
or is it just plain weird?

The Wakie app allows users to receive a friendly call from a stranger
around the world instead of the grating bleep of your everyday alarm
Photo: Alamy

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By Sarah Rainey

7:05AM GMT 04 Feb 2015

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There are few times more sacred than the snug tranquillity of
early(ish) morning, before you have to lurch from under the covers
into the cold, harsh day. The world is peaceful then: the burble of a
shower running next door, maybe the clink of a teaspoon on a cup, the
rustle of the duvet as you snuggle still deeper. Eyes shut, you
imagine you could stay in that soporific state, keeping the day ahead
at bay for just five more minutes… And then the alarm goes off.

The modern alarm has come a long way since the tinny wind-up twin
bell, invented in the 18th century. Sleepers can now be gently roused
from their slumber by their favourite radio station, the ambient sound
of tweeting birds, or even an ever brightening light that mimics the
rising of the sun. With the advent of digital LED clocks, wearable
devices and, of course, the alarms on our mobile phones, there’s now
no excuse for sleeping in. But even modern-day tech hasn’t made it any
easier to get out of bed.

Wakie aims to change all that. The new app, the brainchild of an
Armenian developer, and recently launched for iPhone and Android,
replaces the generic alarm clock with a friendly wake-up call from a
stranger somewhere around the globe. Users simply sign up, submit
their phone number and register as either a “Sleepy” or a “Wakie” –
depending on whether they want to do the waking or be woken up. They
then set an “alarm” for the time they want to get out of bed, and,
within five minutes either side of the time requested, a stranger –
who may be on the other side of the world, where it is daytime – will
call with a morning message.

Each randomly-assigned phone call lasts no more than a minute, and
content can range from a wake-up song to poems, music or simple
conversation. The service is free and you don’t need an internet
connection to use it; if no “Wakie” is available to wake you up, the
site’s automated robot will do it on their behalf. There are
safeguards, too, so users need not worry about giving out personal
details: all calls are made anonymously (the caller will never see
your number, nor you theirs), and if you want to report anything
inappropriate, there’s an easy-to-use feedback form. Or you can always
just hang up.

Bizarre as it sounds, Wakie already has two million users in the UK,
Ireland, US, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore. A trial version launched
in Moscow in 2011, but the full app took three years to complete – and
now has over $3 million (£1.9 million) in funding from venture capital
firms and investors. To date, 40 million wake-up calls have been made.
It’s free to download, for now, but the creators are planning a host
of paid-for premium options further down the line.

The premise is simple: “Most people hate alarm clocks,” says
co-founder Hrachik Adjamian. “Our mission is to brighten people’s
mornings. We want to make them happy and help them start their day
with a smile. People get lots of positive emotions while talking to a
stranger.” He explains that when he started his first business, aged
16, he was working up to 20 hours a day, and constantly pressing
snooze on his alarm clock in the morning. “The only thing that could
really wake me up was a call from an unknown phone number. I knew it
could be a new client for my business and I had to answer. After a
small talk with a stranger, I couldn’t go back to sleep.”

I am capable of few things at that time of day: sleepwalking my way
into the shower, pulling on some clothes, running a brush through my
hair (if I’m lucky). Conversation is not one of them. I struggle to
mumble two words to my other half in the morning; so making chit-chat
on the phone sounds like hell. Reviews of Wakie, however, have been
broadly positive – apart from a few comments by female users, who note
that most of the callers seem to be male.

So could it really work? Here’s how my week of being woken up by
strangers panned out…

Wednesday

I set my first Wakie alarm for 8am. Doubtful that it would work, I set
a backup on my iPhone – but the app beeped into action at 7.57am. I
answered a call from a friendly British man in Los Angeles. “Good
morning!” he trilled. “I’ve just put the kettle on, would you like a
cuppa?” I mumbled a response, oddly mortified to be speaking to a
strange man from my bed. “I’ll pour it down the phone, shall I?” he
laughed. I laughed. I didn’t know what else to say, and there was an
awkward silence. “Well, you have a good day!” he said, and our 60
seconds were up.

Thursday

Not so good this morning. I set Wakie to call me at 8am, but woke half
an hour late to a chirpy notification on my phone, reading: “Hi
Sleepy. You are in such a deep sleep that even Wakey couldn’t get you
out of bed. Have a great day!” Needless to say, I didn’t. Worth noting
that the app doesn’t work like an iPhone alarm. If your mobile isn’t
on loud, you won’t hear a thing.

Friday

A spooky morning. I got a wake-up call, this time at 7am, but there
was no sound; just a repetitive tapping noise. Too odd to bear
thinking about. I hung up, and felt unsettled for the rest of the day.

Saturday

My first musical experience. I was awoken by “John” in Hong Kong,
singing a terrible (yet very passionate) karaoke version of the song
Friday by American artist Rebecca Black. Slightly odd, as it was a
Saturday, but delightful none the less. This one made me smile.

Sunday

Today’s call was made from a car, where there was heavy rock music
blasting down the phone. I could hear a man’s voice in the background
– I think it was Irish – but couldn’t make out what he was saying. Far
too early in the morning for so much noise. Wakie left me with a
pounding headache.

Monday

“Get your butt out of bed!” screamed the voice on the other end of the
line. Or, rather, voices – there must have been 10 people yelling down
the phone this morning. Jarring, but it certainly woke me up.

Tuesday

This one caught me completely unawares. A caller from Michigan – yet
another man – started off friendly enough, telling me about the
weather where he was. Then, out of nowhere, things got decidedly
creepy – and he started saying things I really didn’t want to hear.
Though I was safely in my own home, I felt taken advantage of:
speaking to this lewd stranger on the phone suddenly seemed intimate
and unpleasant. I couldn’t hang up fast enough.

My take on Wakie? It’s certainly a novelty, but the app’s basic
function – getting me out of bed – was patchy. No doubt it will appeal
to young, social media luvvies, eager to try the latest tech fad – but
not me. I started off open-minded, thinking it could be a fun way to
interact with a global community of lively, engaging strangers. I
ended up feeling like a dodgy answering service for strange, leery
men.

“We get positive feedback from users,” insists Adjamian, when I ask
how he stops the service being abused. “We work hard on creating a
community of kind and friendly people. If someone violates our rules,
you can report them and they will be banned. Also, there are
moderators available in the community so users are always welcome to
communicate with them for help. We did some analytics and found that
99.7 per cent of calls are fine. This is very important for us because
people are really sensitive when they wake up.”

That, I can agree with. As the author William Feather once said:
“Early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious”. And, it turns
out, more than a little bit weird.

For now, I’ll stick to silence – and my good old-fashioned wind-up alarm.

Wakie is available for free from the App Store