At the far end of apps

When is an app “too much”?

We have become accustomed to the fact that out of the zillion apps available for Android, Windows and iOS smartphones, only a tiny fraction is useful, meaningful, the rest being downright ridiculous. Still, what may seem not so important today may turn out to be quite useful tomorrow, in technology time measurement.

I remember when many years ago, on the occasion of a trip to the USA, a friend strongly recommended I make sure the car I would rent had a GPS navigation system, a real novelty back then. He explained that since I would be touring Midwestern states in the country, namely Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, a GPS in the car would be helpful.

I first argued that I had good experience driving abroad, bragging that my pigeon-like sense of direction would be enough. A GPS really would be too much. I followed his advice in the end and never regretted it. Today, I even use GPS in Jordan when I have to drive to a place I have never been before, for the first time, especially if it’s outside Amman’s boundaries. The GPS navigation app on my smartphone (Navigator, by MapFactor) has become an indispensable tool.

I sometime browse the Google Play app store — I’m an Android user, I confess — just to explore and see what’s new. It’s a time-consuming activity but that comes with nice surprises sometimes. This time, however, the big surprise wasn’t on Google Play but on an independent site. The app is called EnLighten and it predicts when the traffic light you are waiting at is going to turn green. If you’re asking “why on earth?” please read on.

Today, most of us seize the opportunity of waiting at the traffic light to use our smartphone in many ways: to make calls of course, but also to send messages, check out e-mail, and so forth. Such activity, however, keeps you so much focused on the phone’s screen that the light may turn green while you would still be staring at the display, making angry drivers behind to start honking at you, unless they too happen to be texting.

The EnLighten app is connected to the city’s traffic light system and can predict when the light is about to turn green. Just a few seconds before it happens, a message will pop up on the screen of your GPS-enabled phone to alert you, a warning you can’t miss since you are looking at the screen anyway. The message will overlay whatever you are doing with the phone at that moment, telling you to get ready to move. It can also prompt you with an audio beep.

Too much? Gross exaggeration? Ridiculous? I am not so sure. I am willing to bet that in less than five years most of us will be using such an app.

Currently the main limitation is that very few cities or municipalities have their traffic lights system well centralised and accessible to the masses over the Internet. The name of the start-up company that has come up with the app is Connected Signals, and it is considering adding functionality like for example, to warn when the light is about to turn red, which can also prove to be useful in countless instances.

Those who think it is unbelievable may be interested in knowing that the BMW X5 M, 2015 model, has an in-dash screen that counts down the seconds till the traffic light turns green. Again, for now this works in a very limited number of selected cities in the world. Portland, Oregon USA, is an example of such city. But wait till everything is connected and see it working. No one will honk at you anymore.