Lekker
iOS 12 is here! Improved performance! Better notifications! Memoji!
Yawn.
No, by far the most exciting thing coming to your phone with iOS 12 is Lekker, an amazing new app that tracks your tongue to drive your favorite sex toys (well just vibrators right now actually). Sex using your face? What will they think of next!?!
Links
Lekker continues my exploration of how technology can change or augment sexual expression. When I first saw that fox animoji way back in iOS 11, I knew that face tracking and AR could be used to great effect in the space but it took some time to pull together this app.
Lekker lets you “lick” a jiggly 3D heart, with the angle of your head to the phone controlling the location of the lick and extension of your tongue controlling the lick strength. The heart licks are translated into a vibration strength, with reaching full strength requiring a bit of time and some lingual labor.
In retrospect, perhaps I should have hired someone else to star in this video. Maybe Bruce Willis… Also, believe it or not, this was by far the least ridiculous of many, many, takes.
The app works with wearable vibrators from Lovense. It also features explainer animation by the amazing Emilio Yebra. Seriously, check these things out:
Now even I have to admit that, despite using all the latest tech, in some regards Lekker feels like an regression instead of a step forward because it effectively attempts to digitize a real intimate experience (doing a quite poor job too). The app currently requires that you be within bluetooth range of your partner and its limited range of vibration patterns is hardly invigorating. I do think the app goes in an interesting direction though, and Lekker itself could have potential if used remotely—being a nice step up from push button style sex toy apps. It may also appeal to people who physically cannot partake in some sexual experiences. Of course you can use the app however you want, although I recommend going in with a more light-hearted attitude.
Yet do not mistake Lekker’s silliness and rather immature visual and language spanning punnary with mockery. No, if anything, Lekker is a celebration, which could be a great deal TMI but as I can’t sonnet or serenade this is what you get. For let me state—and hopefully you have no idea why such facts must be stated—there’s nothing wrong or unmanly or embarrassing about satisfying your lover, whoever they may be. The only true embarrassment is to believe otherwise, all of which applies to far more than Lekker of course.
So there you have Lekker; it makes even a yawn exciting™.
I’ve posted up the source code for the app if you are interested in getting more toys supported or tweaking the app to wire up your eyebrows or whatever. And let me know if you have any ideas on how the concept can be extended.