[People News] Recently, a mainland Chinese mobile application called “Are You Dead?”, designed specifically for people living alone, suddenly went viral. In a short period of time, downloads surged by more than 100 times, propelling it to the top of Apple’s paid app rankings. According to its description, the app is a lightweight safety tool for people who live alone. Users must set emergency contacts and check in regularly; if a user fails to check in for two consecutive days, the system automatically sends an email notification to the designated emergency contact on the following day.

The “Are You Dead?” app was first released in May of last year and was initially free to download. As user numbers rapidly increased and server costs rose, the app was changed to a paid download priced at 1 yuan. It was later raised to a one-time purchase price of 8 yuan. The development team said the price increase was intended to cover sustainable operating costs, including SMS notification services.

China’s Rapidly Growing Population Living Alone

According to the New Era of Living Alone Report released by the Beike Research Institute, China’s population of people living alone reached 123 million in 2024, an annual increase of 5.2%. Among them, approximately 110 million are young and middle-aged adults aged 20 to 49, accounting for as much as 90% of the total. The report notes that in 2019, China’s population living alone was about 90 million, and it is projected to grow to between 150 million and 200 million by 2030.

Analysts point out that the explosive popularity of this app directly reveals the surge in China’s population living alone and the chain of social problems behind it. Safety concerns related to living alone are no longer limited to elderly “empty-nesters,” but have become a collective anxiety among urban young people.

On the Douyin platform, searching for the keyword “Are You Dead?” yields more than 70 related videos in the past 24 hours alone. Current affairs commentator Tang Xiaolan noted that people living alone face not only safety anxiety but also a desire to be “seen.” The app builds a digital “safety net,” representing both a passive attempt to cope and a silent appeal for greater social care.

Blogger “Minshun Watches the World” commented that if better alternatives existed, no one would want an app to ask them “Are You Dead?” every day. The app’s sudden popularity serves as a reminder that when living alone becomes the norm, what people need is not just technological tools, but a social support system with warmth and humanity.

“Low-Cost Self-Rescue” as a Satire of “High-Threshold Public Rescue”

Analysts note that the app’s popularity reflects shortcomings in China’s social security system. When whether a person is still alive must be confirmed by pressing a button on a phone, it indicates a clear gap in protections that should have been provided by institutions.

In a properly functioning social welfare system, the safety of people living alone does not rely entirely on individual self-certification, but on a comprehensive, institutionalized, and routine public care mechanism. Individuals should not need to repeatedly confirm “I’m still alive,” because the social system itself would be capable of detecting abnormalities and intervening proactively.

However, in China, the safety of people living alone is still largely treated as a personal issue, or even a private family matter.

Tang Xiaolan observed that in contemporary society, accelerated population mobility has eroded traditional community and kinship networks, making “lonely deaths” a widespread psychological anxiety among those living alone. Sudden illness late at night with no one aware, moving house without help, elderly people lacking someone to sign medical forms, aging household appliances posing hidden dangers—this state of “shouldering everything alone” has made safety alerts a basic necessity.

On Monday, NetEase account “Kelly Economic Observation” wrote that when this demand to “confirm being alive” is pushed into the spotlight, it not only reflects a deep-seated sense of despair and pessimism in social psychology, but also resembles a heavy public policy exam paper, directly testing the depth and breadth of social security coverage.

Analysts believe that the “Are You Dead?” app achieves, at extremely low cost, a basic function that China’s social security system struggles to provide even with high expenditures and complex procedures. This in itself serves as a warning: when the most basic safety confirmation can only be achieved with 8 yuan and a single button, social security has failed to show up.

The “Structural Gap” in China’s Public Welfare Spending

According to analyses by multiple international financial institutions and media outlets in 2025, the proportion of China’s government spending directly used to improve residents’ welfare (such as direct subsidies and social assistance) accounts for only about 6% of GDP—far lower than that of developed countries (typically over 20%) and even some emerging economies (such as Brazil, at around 15%).

Analysts note that for a long time, government spending has been skewed toward infrastructure and production investment. As the population living alone approaches 200 million, public services have lagged significantly in investments related to individual life-safety monitoring, such as responses to sudden health emergencies among those living alone.

In its article, “Kelly Economic Observation” argued that China’s fiscal spending should be transformed into easily accessible smart monitoring within communities, readily available psychological support on neighborhood streets, and a sense of certainty that everyone will be caught in time when they fall into difficulty.

Analysts emphasize that the popularity of the “Are You Dead?” app does not prove that commercial technology is superior to public services; rather, it serves as a strong and direct social warning to the existing public welfare system. The app reminds us that the core of social security is “people.” What 200 million people living alone need is not only physical survival, but also the psychological security and dignity of life that come from being “seen by society and supported by society.”
△