Valentine’s Day is here and if you haven’t dropped by a Hallmark yet and need a last-minute expression of your love, you can hand them your still-beating heart. Sort of – via app, at least.
By syncing your heartbeat with the app (or at least attempting to), Rebtel’s Re:Beat visually thuds to mimic your own heart, which you’re sending digitally of course. If the developer name rings a bell, that’s because it’s the same Swedish company that brought you the free mobile calling app that’s taking on Skype to bring its users free and cheap calls.
Re:Beat has two ways that let you sync your heartbeat. You can elect to hold your finger over the camera and wait as the app attempts to detect your pulse – but good luck. That part of the app needs a serious tune up as you’ll end up holding your finger there forever. And ever. Just give up, really, there’s not enough patience in this world. The other way to gauge your heartbeat is to “sync” the beats manually. If you decide on this method, which we’d strongly recommend, you’re given 10 seconds to tap your finger away with every heartbeat. Of course this is rather inaccurate, but consider it the lesser of two evils.
Once you’ve passed the stage of figuring out your heartbeat, you can send it via SMS, or share it via email, Facebook, or Twitter. If you choose text, the app asks you to type your name and choose a greeting. There’s a list of five different, rather cheesy, greetings – like “My heart beats for you,” “I’m just a heartbeat away,” “Thinking about you,” and… you get the idea.
Once the heartbeat is sent, the recipient receives a URL, and it gives them the option to view the heartbeat by downloading the app first, or by showing it pumping in the browser. You can check out an example of what the recipient sees here.
A Rebtel spokesperson says that Re:Beat is “far more personal than card, a box of chocolates or even roses,” but we suggest having one of those options on hand as well because… well, this might scare the living bejesus out of someone. But if it’s come to this, the app is available in both the Google Play and iOS App Store. Congratulations: the creepiest, digital way to say “I love you” is ready and waiting for download.
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