“Yo” App Partners with Israeli Red Alert App to Warn of Missile Attacks
Red Alert app offers a Yo! update on missile attacks
by David Shaman
What started out as a “joke app” is being marshaled to provide supporters of Israel worldwide with real-time updates on missile attacks against Israel, “adopted” by two Israeli app developers to spread the word on what Israelis are facing. This comes during an escalating conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, who are firing dozens of rockets and missiles at Israel every day. Israel is hitting back with airstrikes and building up ground forces on the border.
The Yo! app joins the veteran Red Alert: Israel app to inform users on exactly where the rockets fired at Israel by Gaza terrorists are aimed, said app co-author Ari Sprung.
When Israel embarked on the Pillar of Defense operation in 2012 in response to the unending rocket attacks against Israel’s south by Gaza terrorists, Sprung and his partner Kobi Snir were concerned that not all those in the affected areas would hear the newly instituted “Red Color” emergency sirens that were supposed to warn residents 15 seconds in advance of a rocket explosion. So as a “backup” warning system, they developed Red Alert: Israel, an app that sounds a warning on cellphones at the same time the real siren goes off.
Now, in 2014, with the Israeli military (IDF) embarking on what could be a long-term campaign against Hamas, missiles and rockets are likely to continue falling on Israel’s south, and perhaps center, as well — and Red Alert: Israel has gained renewed popularity, not only among residents of the south, said Sprung, but among supporters of Israel abroad.
In an effort to get the information about what is going on in Israel to even more people, said Sprung, he and Snir have teamed up with the people at Yo!, the “joke app” that made headlines a few weeks ago when it raised a million dollars from investors. In an example of how “socially redeeming” Yo! can be, users of the app who subscribe to updates from Red Alert: Israel will get a “Yo!” every time a warning is sounded anywhere in Israel, said Sprung.
More at Times of Israel (if you don’t mind clicking on a David Horowitz jawn)