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.
“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.
“Especially now we’re reopening,” he said.
“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.
“The more users we get the more accurate information and reports we will have,” he said.
You can download the app from the website.