Are we allowed to laugh out loud at this? One-star reviews of smartphone apps aren’t exactly needles in a haystack, and that much flak can’t be wrong, right?
SGSecure — an app developed and published by the Ministry of Home Affairs — has been, er, doing poorly, gauging by the dozens of angry complaints by National Servicemen.
According to its description, the SGSecure app is a “national movement to sensitise train and mobilise Singaporeans to play a part to prevent and deal with a terrorist attack.” One can use it to receive updates on major emergencies in Singapore and offer information to the authorities about any crisis.
TL;DR: SGSecure serves as a platform to report terrorist activities or incidents in Singapore.
It apparently had a low number of downloads, despite extensive marketing — those “Not if, but when” ads plastered all over town; they even paid Mothership to promote SGSecure. So what better solution than to get full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) to download it to boost statistics?
Apparently, it seems like enciks (non-commissioned officers who have mostly been in service for a long time) are now making it compulsory for NSFs to download the app onto their smartphones, or else they reportedly get extra (extra duty for short — that means no booking out).
NSFs spared no mercy in dishing out savage reviews.
Reviews were actually kinder on the Google Play store at an average of 3.6 stars, but there were still traces of disgruntled NSFs.
We don’t know how useful this would be in real life, since we already have Twitter, Reddit and Facebook, but it sums up NS life for Singaporeans we guess. Ownself download ownself.
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