Spending time avoiding someone on social media has always been easier than avoiding them in real life. Not anymore thanks to a new app called Cloak. An “antisocial network,” Cloak rounds up users’ Foursquare and Instagram geolocation data to help them avoid others that they’d rather not see. According to its App Store page, the company even describes it as an “incognito mode for real life”.
A new app claims to be the social network for the anti-social. While most social media apps focus on helping you get closer to your friends, Cloak uses location data to make it easier for you to avoid your connections. The app pulls in location information from your social networks to show you where friends are so you can avoid accidentally bumping into people you don’t want to see. Connect Cloak to Foursquare and Instagram and the app brings up a map displaying your location and the locations of friends who have checked in nearby. If there’s someone you want to avoid, select “flag” and the app will alert you when that person gets within a certain radius of you. A half mile is the default radius but you can set it to be as small as one block or as big as two miles.