Sri Lankan Ph.D. student in team behind pioneering social distancing app

• Crowdless is the free app that helps people meet social distancing requirements by avoiding crowded places
• Provides real-time data on crowded public places

By Chandani Kirinde

A UK-based social enterprise Lanterne has just launched Crowdless, a free app that helps people meet social distancing requirements by avoiding crowds and queues when carrying out day-to-day activities.

Crowdless provides real-time data on how crowded popular places, such as supermarkets, fuel stations and malls, are so that people can choose the best time and place to visit. The free-to-use Crowdless app is usable anywhere in the world.

The app is the brainchild of Lanterne Co-Founders Sebastian Mueller, Alex Barnes, and Yohan Iddawela, who specialise in crisis technology. The trio previously built an app to help people in conflict zones to navigate safely.

“The mission of our social enterprise, Lanterne, is to use data to improve safety and promote economic development. We wanted to see what we could do with our skillset to help people out at such a trying time. Our CTO, Sebastian, came up with the idea of building a free app to help people with social distancing,” said LSE Ph.D. student Yohan Iddawela, who was a pioneer in developing the app.

“Our hope is that Crowdless can help people observe social distancing more effectively, stay safe, and play a part in slowing down the infection rate of COVID-19. We are also committed to ensuring that the app remains 100% free for everyone to use.”