Skip to main content

Looking for an appropriate sperm donor? Sure, there's an app for that

The London Sperm Bank
Even sperm banks can benefit from modernization and mobile services. The U.K.’s London Sperm Bank, the nation’s largest, now has a mobile app to improve access for prospective parents searching for the right biological material, according to MIT Technology Review.

In addition to being the U.K.’s largest donor organization, the London Sperm Bank has the most extensive donor screening, with the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and several medical associations involved. There are other sperm donor sources, many of which have mobile apps, but the importance of medical screening means searching won’t be just on the basis of physical traits.

Recommended Videos

With more than 10,000 vials of sperm to choose from, the process can be lengthy. The hope is that adding the convenience of mobile devices for searches will help. The app has a “wish list function” with which prospective parents can specify exactly what they’re looking for in a donor. When a donor meets all the criteria on a wish list the users are sent notification alerts.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Ordering through the mobile app costs the same as ordering from the London Sperm Bank catalog. Each order costs about $1,200, although a visit to the website noted a 30-percent per-vial discount for multiple vial orders. The discount information is accompanied by a notice that “One vial is sufficient for a treatment cycle.”

Delivery is free within the U.K. but orders are not shipped to private homes. The sperm vials are sent only to fertility centers.

As the MIT Technology Review notes, the U.K. is a frontrunner in reproductive technologies. The first baby conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) was born in England in 1978, while the first IVF birth in the U.S. was in 1981. From a success rate of 5 percent in 1978, IVF is successful 40 to 50 percent of the time today. Adding the convenience of mobile app searching may not boost the conception success rate, but it is likely to make the search and filtering process much more convenient.

Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown Contributing Editor   As a Contributing Editor to the Auto teams at Digital Trends and TheManual.com, Bruce…
The Google Home app is getting a major overhaul. Here’s what it looks like
The Google Home logo on a Pixel phone.

Just days after announcing its fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat, Google is set to change the Google Home app. As first noted by Android Police, this will revamp how users interact with their compatible devices.

The updated app, part of the Google Home Public Preview version 3.20.1.8, has been revised, including the thermostat controls and the general UI. The refresh also relocates the Nest app and Energy Dashboard icons underneath the main thermostat controls; they now look like pills. Meanwhile, the settings cog and overflow menu remain at the app’s top.

Read more
Your Google Photos app may soon get a big overhaul. Here’s what it looks like
The Google Photos app running on a Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Google Photos is set to get a long-overdue overhaul that will bring new and improved sharing and notification features to the app. With its automatic backups, easy sorting and search, and album sharing, Google Photos has always been one of the better photo apps, and now it's set to get a whole slew of AI features.

According to an APK teardown done by Android Authority and the leaker AssembleDebug, Google is now set to double down on improving sharing features. Google Photos will get a new social-focused sharing page in version 6.85.0.637477501 for Android devices.

Read more
The T-Mobile Tuesdays app is about to get a big upgrade
A screenshot of the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, showing a promo for the new T Life app.

T-Mobile is a consistent leader in the ongoing 5G race, and to kick off 2024 on an interesting note, the carrier has announced that a big change is coming to its T-Mobile Tuesdays app. In short, the app is going away — and in its place, a new one is launching soon.

If you open the T-Mobile Tuesdays app today, January 2, you'll see a card that says "Introducing T Life." Below that is additional text that describes T Life as "a new app for T-Mobile Tuesdays."

Read more