From a child protection standpoint, the app we are going to be showing you today is probably a lot like the toys our grandparents played with, old fashioned, fun, and incredibly dangerous…
⚠️If you are under the age of 18, we do not recommend downloading this app for yourself!
Jumping right in, 斉藤さん (which translates to Saito-San in English) is essentially a phone app that connects you to someone totally random and anonymous in Japan. As far as we are aware, the app is only available in Japan and is designed in a way that connects users to one another based on the “keyword” you enter before hitting call.
The app then finds other users who are using the same “keyword” and will randomly connect you to one of them.
Since the app only connects 2 users who are making a call at the same time – it won’t wake you up in the middle of the night to chat with some random stranger – the “keyword” you enter is incredibly important if you want someone to actually answer your call.
We suspect most users probably stick to using whatever is currently in the trending tab.
Although the concept is incredibly interesting and unlike any sort of social media (if we are even allowed to call it that) we’ve ever seen in English, it has a few fairly obvious problems.
There is a 99% chance anyone who asks you to enable “video chat” is a creep. In order to protect its users, Saito-San requires both parties to accept before it will enable video chat, meaning users can’t randomly bombard one another with live pornographic imagery before someone has a chance to hang up.
The video chat in this app is truly toxic… but incredibly easy to spot and prevent.
So what about the voice chat? Well, in our experience, if you speak English like us, chances are most people will hang up on you within the first 5 seconds. Japanese people are shy? 😂
However, just like any social media, if you stick at it long enough, you may just happen to come across someone who is somewhat normal and actually manage to make “some” friends. Or in our case “one” friend…
The Conclusion
Should you get Saito-San? Um, probably not.
For starters, this app is “actually” unsafe, seriously. For adults who like to prank one another and who know how toxic the planet we live on has become, sure, it’s probably no different to living everyday life.
But for anyone who still has hope in this world, this is an app you should probably keep at a distance… Funny, but toxic none the less…
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