Rejecting someone who admires and respects you can be awkward, if not painful. If you want to avoid these less-than-pleasant social interactions, then a new app offers a solution, without ignoring people or changing your number. Called Ghostbot, the app helps people coin the perfect response for people they want to reject.
According to the website, the bot and app aim to tack a growing problem in the dating world: aggressive and harassing texts.
“We hear a lot of anecdotes about terrible texting from dating matches, but sometimes blocking someone creates an awkward social circumstance. Ghostbot helps you go through the motion of ghosting someone without negative consequences,” said Will Carter, co-founder of Ad Hoc Labs, which makes Ghostbot, to The Guardian.
Ghostbot is a bot that works with Burner -- an app that provides users with free, disposable numbers -- promising to help “you ghost away from fleeting relationships.” The team at Burner collaborated with bot-makers at Voxable and screenwriter Peter Miriani to create bots with a human personality.
“Ghostbot was built on the idea that when you treat a phone number like a piece of software, you can create amazing and interesting experiences that are accessible by everyone,” say the Ghostbot team on their website. “It leverages Burner's groundbreaking Connections program that allows users to activate new functionality on their Burner lines. Opening phone numbers in this way will drive innovation that was not possible before. Other developers can create programs like Ghostbot using Burner's webhook capabilities, which have been expanded to include incoming requests.”
Users simply have to get the Burner app and then add Ghostbot to Burner by entering their carrier number on the signup page. Then, select the individual you want to ghost and when they text, Ghostbot will respond. The response time, says the Ghostbot website, will vary randomly -- it could be minutes or hours -- and will eventually cease communication.
That said, those thinking of ending long term relationships using a Ghostbot should think again. “It’s really designed with a specific use case of empowering people to not to have to deal with uncomfortable situations,” Carter told The Guardian.
