Innovation of the week: an app for managing your friends

(Image credit: Courtesy Photo)

published 6 February 2015

A new app aims to make your social life less stressful, said Sophie Weiner at Fast Company. Dubbed pplkpr, the app gathers data from wearable heart rate monitors to measure users' "emotional response to hanging out with different people." By analyzing changes in heart rate, the app ranks "people in your life according to how happy, anxious, or angry they make you," and then texts or tweets people it thinks you should hang out with more often. Pplkpr's developers say the service will help users manage connections better, especially as social media and other technologies expand social circles and make it tough to keep up with relationships. There's even talk the app could be adapted for users who "have a hard time understanding" social situations, such as those with autism spectrum disorders.