Malfunctioning public utilities and pitiful infrastructures have always been a topic of hot debate. Every time you pass by a road with deplorable conditions, or see someone offering free food to the destitute, have you not felt like protesting against its unfairness or appreciating the kind act of that ‘someone’, but couldn’t? ‘Slap or clap’, a mobile application developed by the Vofox Solutions Pvt Ltd in Kochi, offers you the platform to do that - to express your anguish as well as acknowledge a samaritan act.
Slap or Clap is a unique app that allows one to click photos and share it on the social networking platform with a watermark of ‘slap’ or ‘clap’. The idea for the app is developed by Sanoop M S, team lead and Nujin Jacob, CEO of Vofox. “On everyday basis we see a lot of things happening around us, that calls out for a reaction but there are no venues to vent out. So we wanted to develop an app where one can express their angst on the civic issues. Along with bad deeds, our app appreciates good acts too,” says Sanoop.
How it works
The users can click photos of a mismanaged public infrastructure, or acts by citizens who disregard the rules and regulations, or acts by the government and the people that requires appreciation, and add a watermark of ‘slap’ or ‘clap’ and share it with the app. The photos shared by the users get directly uploaded in the facebook page of Slap or Clap with the full credits of the photo going to the specific user. The app, when opened gives an option of ‘slap’ or ‘clap’, from which the user has to choose any according to what has to be shared, and further gives an option of camera or gallery, which allows the user to post and share incidents instantly as well.
The app which helps the user to express his or her gratitude and dissatisfaction, was developed by the founders from their own personal experiences. “Our roads during monsoon become nothing less than a pond. It was no different, during the rainy season last year. Even though we feel an urge to protest against it, we don’t quite have a platform to do that. That’s when the idea to create such an app came to us,” says Nujin. He adds that the app is advertisement free, and was created with the whole purpose of social commitment and not profit.
The app was widely welcomed among the people, who found it as an apt way to voice their concerns against social issues. From ‘slapping’ the government for the unhygienic conditions and poor infrastructure of Government Hospital, Mavelikkara, to ‘clapping’ for the Aam Admi Government which announced a citizen friendly budget, the app has been successful to involve more and more people in social issues and bringing it out to the attention of the public and the government.
The app is currently available in ios and android devices. Even though only photos can be uploaded using the app, the founders are working on uploading videos as well.