“My apartment just got torn down … I gotta go!”
Okay, that’s not the most believable excuse, but comedian Chelsea Handler’s new app, Gotta Go!, wants to help get you out of unpleasant scenarios or awkward conversations.
All you have to do is set up an excuse in the app, which come in the form of calls or texts, and then schedule when you want them to activate to get you out of a pickle. You can even set up the person that the call or text comes from to make it more believable, and the app lets you set a color and emoji for the excuse, giving you a few preset options.
The app came about through Handler’s new Netflix documentary series, Chelsea Does. In the second episode, Handler gets the idea for the app after having an awkward conversation with a Netflix employee, and she goes out to put it together herself. Handler, acting as the “chief excuse officer,” paired with design and development company Yeti to build Gotta Go!.
The idea is hardly new. If you take a look at the App Store or the Google Play store, you’ll see a handful of apps like Fake Conversation and Fake Call & SMS that have been getting people out of undesirable situations. Most of these apps haven’t been updated in a while, though, so it may be worth giving Gotta Go! a look. The free app is available only on iOS at the moment.
Either way, the next time you’re too uncomfortable to say you’re just not interested during a date, or if yet another useless meeting has been scheduled at work — you’ll certainly have a convincing way to excuse yourself.
