Beijing, Jan 16, 2026, 17:00 GMT+8
- A bluntly named check-in app popular with people living alone was no longer available on Apple’s mainland China App Store early Friday.
- Developers have moved to rebrand the app as “Demumu” and introduced an 8 yuan fee as downloads surged.
- A Hong Kong-based academic said the app’s appeal reflects isolation, long hours and rising solo living in China.
A Chinese mobile app called “Are You Dead?” that went viral by asking users to prove they are still alive disappeared from Apple’s App Store in mainland China early Friday, after drawing intense attention and a backlash over its grim name. The one-button app, aimed at people living alone, costs about 8 yuan ($1.10) and prompts users to tap a large green circle as a daily check-in; if they miss several days, it alerts a designated emergency contact. One of the developers, Ian Lü, said the goal was a low-friction routine — “It’s unrealistic to message people every day just to tell them you’re still alive” — and the team said the takedown happened suddenly as it dangled a 666 yuan ($96) reward for a new name after a planned switch drew pushback. (AP News)
The app is known as “Sileme” in Chinese, a phrase that translates as “Are you dead?”, and its development team has pitched it as a lightweight safety tool for solo dwellers, from students to office workers. The team said it would roll out a payment scheme of 8 yuan to help cover rising costs and it has already been listed as “Demumu” on Apple’s paid-app chart in China, sitting at No. 2 after briefly topping the list earlier in the week. State-backed tabloid Global Times has projected China could reach up to 200 million one-person households and a solo-living rate above 30%, a backdrop that has helped turn a spare utility into a flashpoint. “Maybe some conservative people can’t accept it,” one user wrote, while others urged a softer name. (Reuters)
The timing has made the app a proxy for a wider argument about loneliness and risk in modern China, as more people live far from relatives and more older residents spend their final years on their own. A CNN report cited a mix of aging, migration, fewer marriages and job anxiety, and quoted Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor of social science and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, saying the app “taps into this feeling of atomization.” He cautioned that a tool like this can help in an emergency but should not replace real support, as one Weibo user put it more bluntly: “The scariest thing isn’t loneliness — it’s disappearing.” (KESQ)
The app’s mechanics are deliberately thin. No chat thread, no small talk — just a tap that tells someone else you’re around, and a quiet escalation when you are not.
That simplicity is part of what made it travel fast. For some users, the name reads like gallows humor between friends; for others it trips a cultural nerve, forcing a taboo topic into the lock screen.
The developers’ answer has been to soften the branding while keeping the premise intact. “Demumu” has been framed as a global-facing label, and the pricing shift signals the cost of keeping even a basic alert service running at scale.
The sudden disappearance from mainland app stores, though, changes the trajectory. Apple and Android storefront decisions in China can be opaque, and the developers have offered no public explanation beyond calling the removal abrupt.
But there is a downside scenario that is hard to dodge: if the app stays off major mainland platforms, its user base could stall just as attention peaks, and a fee raises expectations on reliability, data handling and false alarms. Some potential users have already voiced fears about personal details leaking, a concern that can spread as quickly as the app itself.
For now, the app has done what few utilities manage. It dragged a private worry — dying alone, or simply being unnoticed — into public view, and then slipped out of sight in the place where it started.
