This Messenger app will keep your friends anxiously waiting for your reply
There's about to be some drama in the group chat.
Godotify is a simple app you can use to mess with your friends. All you have to do is download it on your computer and let it run in the background. Then, whenever a friend messages you on Facebook Messenger, the app will make it look as though you're typing indefinitely. It also tracks how long your friends have been waiting. Devious!
We tried the app, and it works perfectly. Just download the app, send your friend a serious-sounding message like "hey, we need to talk," and sit back and let it work its magic.
The cleverly-named app is a reference to the Samuel Beckett play, Waiting for Godot, in which two characters wait for someone named Godot who never arrives.
Developers Iain Nash and Anastasis Germanidis made the Mac app in three hours at the "Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon," fondly known as Stupid Hackathon, "a one-day event where participants conceptualize and create projects that have no value whatsoever". The event is hosted and sponsored by NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
"We mostly wanted to make something that would poke fun at the whole chatbot trend and eventually arrived at the idea," Germanidis said in an email. "Hopefully it can get people to think about the ways in which small design choices in our communication apps, like the typing indicator or the read receipt, subtly alter the way we relate to one another, raising the level of anxiety in our interactions while providing little discernible benefit."
Since the hackathon, the duo has also added a Windows version. The app can be downloaded here.
Topics Facebook
Freia Lobo wrote about Tech News for Mashable in NYC. You can follow her on twitter at @freialobo
