Advertisement

Edmonton man develops crowd-reporting app for COVID-19 social distancing

Click to play video: 'Edmonton man develops crowd-reporting app'
Edmonton man develops crowd-reporting app
WATCH ABOVE: Would you like to know how busy a place is before you even get there? An Edmonton man has developed a new app with that goal in mind. Nicole Stillger explains – Jun 27, 2020

An Edmonton man has developed a new app for crowd reporting amid COVID-19, hoping to help people better prepare themselves for social distancing as the province continues to reopen.

“[The app will] help other users to report on locations and the crowd densities,” developer Mark Lee explained.

“Any locations — restaurants, coffee shops, malls, to parks and dog parks.”

The app is called CoExist and Lee thought it would be a useful tool for those concerned about exposure during the pandemic.

Story continues below advertisement

“Especially now we’re reopening,” he said.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“I think there’s a huge need for it, just because before you leave the house, you’d like to know how crowded a location is.”

Here’s how it works:

Users drop a pin wherever they are then select how crowded that particular place is on a scale of ‘Not Busy’ to ‘Very Busy.’

They can also leave notes — flagging lineups, wait times or if people are not social distancing.

Once the feedback is sent, another user can select the location and see all the reported information, including when it was posted.

“For business owners too — they can also report how busy their establishment is,” Lee explained.

“That way they can kind of spread out their business throughout the day.”

The app is available for free to all Apple and Android users around the world.

Lee says everything is anonymous and there is no tracking.

Story continues below advertisement

“The more users we get the more accurate information and reports we will have,” he said.

Click to play video: 'Alberta launches ABTraceTogether app to improve COVID-19 contact tracing'
Alberta launches ABTraceTogether app to improve COVID-19 contact tracing

You can download the app from the website.

Sponsored content

AdChoices