How Can Smartphone-Based Sex Apps Beat the Hype?

Sex apps need a rethink, says former Fleshbot CEO.

A prominent sex tech writer has cautioned developers to stop creating sex apps for the sake of it and focus more on solving specific problems.

Lux Alptraum, a sex educator, comedian, and former CEO of Fleshbot, wrote a 1500-word article on Fusion arguing some companies were merely exploiting the current craze for apps, losing sight of their main purpose: to improve people’s love lives.

Apps for everything

Many sex apps have emerged over the past few years.

Some apps, such as Spreadsheets and Lovely, produce statistics about people’s love lives. Others work in conjunction with sex toys, such as OhMiBod’s BlueMotion.

Alptraum’s article focuses on REMOJI, a proposed app that has taken off on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo. Financial support for REMOJI has exceeded more than 10 times its original target of $10,000.

REMOJI promises to be a fun and sexy way of controlling sex toys remotely, with users handing over control of their sex lives to the app’s yellow, coconut-shaped avatar.

Alptraum, however, does not see the appeal.

She says just because “people like sex, and people like apps” doesn’t mean everybody will like the two together at every opportunity.

Just because you can bring apps into the bedroom doesn’t mean you should—if they’re not necessary.

The right sex tech for you

Alptraum admits there is a level of “tech/sex panic” behind suggestions that apps could ruin a person’s love life.

But she says the sex tech industry might need to rethink the way it combines sex and smartphones.

“It is one thing to mediate intimacy through technology when it’s the best available option: when we’re miles away from the object of our affection, for instance, or when some technological assistance is required to achieve (or enhance) sexual pleasure or orgasm,” she says.

“But to insert high-tech flourishes into sex just because we can misses the point—and the promise—of innovative, technologically enhanced sexual experiences.”

In the end, it might just be a matter of finding the technology for the right user. Sex apps might be great for some people, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessary for everybody.

Image Sources: bohed, Miriam Joyce