Dystopian app 'Are You Dead?' asking users to do one simple thing climbs to top of China's app store

Do you ever yearn for a simpler time when our phones weren’t clogged with apps?

Constantly telling us doom and gloom from around the world, reminding us how far into our overdrafts we are, and pulling us into the grim underbelly of the gaming world?

One of 2026’s first trends is the whole one about how 2016 is ‘back’, and with our phones accused of being little more than apocalyptic scrolling machines these days, some people wish 2016 really was back. Things were just easier when the only app on our phones was Fruit Ninja.

In China, one dystopian app is tipping the charts, and with the name of ‘Are You Dead?’, it’s just as grim as it sounds. Reminding us of the plot of some dystopian Black Mirror, Are You Dead? (Sile Me in Chinese) is a pretty simplistic idea where users had to log in daily.

Away from the eerie 'Death Clock' that apparently predicts when you're going to die, Are You Dead? offers something very different.

By pressing a green button with a cute ghost in the middle, the app registers if you’re still here.

For those who fail to check in two days in a row, the app gets in touch with your emergency contact and presumably tells them that it thinks you’re dead.

Initially launched as a free app in 2025, Sile Me has slipped into the paid category to become China’s No. 1 paid app.

Costing 8 yuan ($1.15), its popularity is attributed to it giving security to the many who live alone in China. Largely driven by Chinese migrants, the app is also sitting near the top of charts in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the USA.

The Apple app store describes Are You Dead? as a 'lightweight safety tool' that's meant to help those who live alone "establish invisible safety protection through check-in monitoring and emergency contact mechanisms to make solitary life more reassuring."

As noted by The Global Times, there have been complaints about the name. Notably, some have suggested the developers change it to 'Are You Alive?' to remove some negative connotations.

One person from Southwest China's Sichuan Province said: "Death has both a literal and sociological meaning. If it were changed to 'Are You Alive,' I would pay to download it."

Either way, China is projected to have up to 200 million one-person households by the year 2030.

There's a particular spike among younger Chinese people, who are supposedly choosing to live alone instead of getting married. Elsewhere, China's largely older population is also being affected, with 2024 marking the third consecutive year of population decline.

We're reminded that China's birthrate has been on a downward trajectory for decades, largely due to rapid urbanisation and the 'one-child policy' that was implemented from 1980 to 2015.

While some might mock Are You Dead? as a gross way of monetizing loneliness, others praise it as a needed use of modern technology. Stats from the National Bureau of Statistics reveal how single-person households accounted for 19.5% of all homes in 2024. This is massively up from 7.8% two decades earlier

Are You Dead? looks like it'll continue to evolve, with users asking for more features, including heart-rate monitoring and automatic alert detection.

In response to these requests, the team said: "Next, we will focus our main efforts on refining the product -- for example, enriching SMS notification features, considering adding a messaging function, and exploring more elder-friendly products. We also appreciate everyone's suggestions for a new name and will study and consider them carefully."