There are apps to track your sleep, your steps, and your pets, but this may be the first that tracks your friends.
Pplkpr, pronounced “People Keeper,” connects to a Bluetooth heartrate monitor and measures your response when certain people are around. One goal is to help you identify your most toxic companions.
A student who tested out the app explains in this video that pplkpr helped her realize that her friend Mark is “kind of a dick.”
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A promotional video for pplkpr bears this out, with a narrator cheerfully explaining how the app will “automatically manage your relationships so you don’t have to” — a notion that might remind you of the movie Her, with its greeting card company that expresses personal sentiments for customers so they don’t have to. But pplkpr isn’t totally critical of trendy tech.
“There’s a part that’s kind of earnest or optimistic about exploring these ideas,” McCarthy said. She points out that pplkpr can be a sort of litmus test for your views on personal data tracking.
“You might realize it’s terrifying, or you might realize there’s something interesting in the reflection,” McCarthy said.
