The success of just about every social network is always based on how the community interacts with each other through the social network. This app, however, is made to be anti-social.
Cloak is not just another social networking app on the iPhone. Unlike other social networks, Cloak is counter intuitively designed to let you avoid people, in real life.
How does it work? The app pulls your friend’s location data in Foursquare and Instagram. If someone is at least within your specified location radius, Cloak will alert you immediately. This way, you can avoid bumping into them in real life. The default radius is a half a mile, but you can specify your “no-bump” radius as big as two cities apart.
Of course, you would need to follow these people on Instagram and Foursquare first before Cloak can work its magic in helping you avoid them.
It appears that the app is targeted at people who want to avoid other people. From the app’s iPhone page, we can see from the reviews how people are actually using it.
“I love this app! I use it all the time to avoid my personal acquaintances. For example, if I want to get a bacon cheeseburger at Buddy’s Burgers but my ex-wife and kids are there. Now I know!“
Cloak has a unique product proposition, but it still cannot bypass an Instagram and Foursquare user’s privacy settings. This is what another user has to say:
“The app isn’t quite as advertised, though. I am following about 800 people on Instagram, but I have only been able to see the locations of four or five of them. It could just be their privacy settings, but still, I thought I would see the locations of more of them.“
While the idea behind Cloak is to help you avoid people, you can actually use it to stalk other people as well. Simply set it up to send notification if a certain person is within your radius.
Cloak is certainly unique, but it will be more useful if they can add other social networks onto it, such as Facebook and Google+. While the developers of this product are looking for ways to connect with more social networks, it is definitely exciting to see if more anti-social apps and products will sprout in the future.
Also read: Latest viral mobile social network app Meow is also a dating app in disguise
Featured Image Credit: Vikasmantra
