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We’ve all felt the guilt. You’re comfortably sat on a hard-fought for tube seat, but too engrossed in your game of Candy Crush to realise there’s a pregnant woman standing next to you who could really do with your comfy spot – until it's too late. But now, a new app has been launched to help pregnant commuters find a seat, even if their fellow passengers are so immersed in their phones they forget to look up. 'Babee on Board' sends an alert to commuters' smartphones letting them know there’s a pregnant passenger onboard who needs a seat.
There are two versions of the app, 'request seat' and 'offer seat'. The idea is that pregnant women simply press a button on the 'request seat' app, which then sends a message to phones within a 15-ft radius saying: 'Heads up! There's a pregnant person nearby who might need a seat'.
The app was developed by London-based firm 10x and came about after its CEO felt the well-known guilt of failing to stand up for a pregnant passenger because they'd been too busy on their phone. It's also Bluetooth operated, meaning it works underground and doesn't require any signal.
At £3.99, it's not the cheapest app, but 10x have said they're donating all profits to the Project Healthy Children Charity. Also, unless Londoners download the free 'offer seat' sister app, they won't actually be able to receive the alerts, but 10x is hoping to partner with companies such as Google, Apple, Citymapper and Uber in the future in the hope alerts could eventually be sent through these apps instead.
'Babee on Board' is currently being trialled in London. Both apps are available on iOS now, with Android versions due to be released in early 2017.
TfL is rolling out the ‘please offer me a seat’ tube badges this year.