The disturbing app that is all the rage in China and is based on answering a single question a day

There are no constant notifications, no statistics, no prizes. Just one daily confirmation. If you don’t do this for two consecutive days, the app automatically sends an email to an emergency contact to check if everything is okay.

The impact of this digital registration service, designed to young people who live alone in China’s sprawling cities, it was enough for the app to scale to the first place in paid downloads in the App Store in just a week.

The application was developed by three Chinese programmers from generation Z who were looking to create something different. Guo, one of its creators — who asked to be identified only by his last name — explained that he had been working on social and entertainment apps for years, but felt that something more essential was missing.

The inspiration came from Maslow’s pyramid of needs, which defines human needs in five levels. “The security “It is at a very deep level and affects many more people than we think,” he explained in an interview with Wired. The question that triggered the project was as direct as it was uncomfortable: what happens if something happens to someone who lives alone and no one finds out?

The interface of Are You Dead Yet it seems designed not to distract. Neutral background, a large green button and nothing else. Upon startup, the user enters their name and an emergency email. From there, you just have to confirm daily that you are still alive.

Therefore, the idea is designate a contact person In case of emergency, you will receive an alert if a user goes several days without confirming their well-being in the app. If the user forgets, the app does not insist: it simply acts.

The success of Are You Dead Yet It is not understood without the social context. According to the 2020 Chinese census, More than 25% of the country’s households are made up of a single personalmost double that of a decade ago. Although older adults continue to be the predominant group, more and more young people live alone, either by choice or due to economic and work conditions.

In this scenario, the app connects with a silent but widespread fear: the possibility of disappearing without anyone noticing. It is not about paranoia, but about an everyday anxiety that technology, this time, does not try to cover up, but rather expose.

The initial development of the application cost just 200 dollars. At its launch, in June 2025, it was free. Shortly after, the creators established a token one-time payment of 1 yuan (about 14 cents), which was later increased to 8 yuan, little more than a dollar. There are no subscriptions or premium features.

Still, investor interest was immediate. According to Guo, more than 60 funds and individuals contacted the team after the app went viral. Some bids reached several million yuan for a stake in the parent company, Moonscape Technologies. The startup evaluates close a financing round in the coming weeks.

On the other hand, the development team already planning a name change and incorporate new functions to improve the service.

The application, popularized as “Delete” in China is a play on words that translates as “Are you dead?”. Its global impact made its creators consider the possibility of changing their name to leave all kinds of criticism behind.

“After extensive consideration, the ‘Sileme’ application will officially adopt the global brand ‘Demumu’ as its name in its next new version,” said the company

And they added: “In the future, Demum will remain steadfast in its founding mission of safeguarding safety to help people living alone.”

As for the technical, the idea is integrate artificial intelligence so that the app is not limited to recording a daily keystroke, but can detect risk situations more actively.

Although they did not detail specific functions, Guo advanced the ambition of the project: to turn the app into a kind of “safety companion” on the cell phone, capable of assisting when the user needs it.

In times where innovation is usually associated with complexity, the simplicity of Are You Dead Yet it proposes the opposite: a minimal solution to a basic human problem. Its success suggests that, beyond artificial intelligence and hyperconnected platforms, there is a growing demand for technologies that do not promise more, but simply be there when needed.