Urban Signals: Awesome, Or Really Terrifying?

by Chiara Atik · January 22, 2010

    If you're an urban single, you might want to consider signing up for Urban Signals, the new iPhone app that lets you know the names of, and subsequently make passes at random strangers who pass you on the street. Wait, actually, that sounds scary.-

    Urban Signals is sort of like a cross between FourSquare and Missed Connections. Except on Craigslist, if you don't want to be found, you won't be. Confused? Go over to the website and have Alan talk you through it.

    Who is Alan? Oh, Alan is just a regular Joe who HATES Missed Connections. So he downloaded Urban Signals which allows him to track down girls in Central Park, and now they can never get away!

    This concept would be extremely exciting if, say, the people on Urban Signals actually looked like Alan, but I'm guessing that actor doesn't really have to resort to downloading iPhone apps to get himself laid. And while getting cat calls from construction workers can be a not entirely unwelcome and even somewhat flattering part of your walk to work, the fact that these construction workers could theoretically find your name and track you for blocks with their iPhones is...creepy.

    I signed up for Urban Signals (it's RESEARCH.), but unfortunately there are currently no Urban Singles on Bowery. Maybe that's because our offices on Broome Street are too far to pick up signals from the Bowery Mission.

    But if it works once, even just once...it is a sweet, romantic idea, isn't it? Photos from the launch party (and, again, if these photos were indicative of the general pool of Urban Signals users, things would be looking up...) last night below...

    [Images via Random Night Out]