We’ve all been there, folks. You’re at an event, you’re talking to someone who can’t seem to tell that they’re giving you the shits, but what do you do? Most of us would just politely put up with the conversation of doom, but not Chloe Condon. Chloe made herself a fake boyfriend app to get herself out of there.
[jwplayer u4AeGU7l]
Chloe works for Microsoft as a Cloud Developer Advocate, which is a fancy way of saying she knows her way around some pretty techy stuff. Using Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, she was able to set up a fake boyfriend who would call her when she needed it most.
Essentially, it works in tandem with a little Bluetooth button called Flic. When activated, the signal from Flic triggers a call from a number which is set up as “My Boyfriend” in Chloe’s phone, complete with a picture and heart emojis. When answered, a hilariously robotic voice speaks and then pumps Rick Astley‘s Never Gonna Give You Up through the speaker. Classic gag.
You can see it in action below.
Used @twilio + @Azure to create a fake boyfriend to help save me from awkward social situations. Blog coming shortly, but here’s a little teaser of my new boo calling me
If u want to get a head start & take a peek at what’s going on here, check out https://t.co/QkGQsWJaHX pic.twitter.com/U1cyvoBz8K
— Chloe Condon (@ChloeCondon) March 26, 2019
“Call me,” the voice says. “It is I, your boyfriend. Please call me as soon as you can. It is very urgent.” Hopefully the volume isn’t high enough for people to realise her boyfriend is only calling to Rick Roll the shit outta her, as funny as that would be.
The bad news, for you, is that this isn’t something you can download and straight-up use, but if you know your way around a bit of coding jargon, you can follow Chloe’s steps here. It’s a good example of what’s possible with cloud services like Azure.
If fiddling your way around cloud services and code isn’t your bag, I’m sure it’ll only be a matter of time before someone makes an iOS or Android variant, if one doesn’t already exist.
