Run, hide, review.
What’s more important – your mobile phone data, or your weekends?
For these NSFs, the choice was pretty clear.
Apparently, some NSFs have been forced to download the Ministry of Home Affairs’ anti-terrorism mobile phone app SGSecure, and many were unhappy about it.
That’s nothing new, seeing as to how most of us go through national service doing things we never wanted to do. However, with social media, the game has changed.
An image of several NSFs giving scathing reviews of the app has gone viral, and quite frankly, they are hilarious.
Their choice was quite clear: Download the app, or face punishments like confinements, extras, or even getting charged. Weekends are a top commodity for NSFs, and the choice was pretty clear.
Of Poetry, Justin Bieber, And Cthulhu
To our delight, the image has unleashed the angst and anger of other national servicemen in a similar position, and their comments are gold.
Giving the app a one star, this romantic NSF added some poetic life into his review.
Savage.
Lucky for this guy, Justin Bieber cancelled his concert a couple of days ago.
Laugh all you want, but a terrorist trying to bomb your house or a car mowing you down are very realistic concerns.
…and this is what happens when you piss off a Warhammer 4000 fan.
For this NSF, the app apparently saved him from his Lovecraftian, Zelda inspired, anime-infused Clash Royale fantasy.
This anonymous downloader took things a little… too seriously. #staywoke
Finally, this reviewer summed up the entire situation succinctly.
We Test It Out
To be fair, the SGSecure App was created for a legitimate purpose – which is to familiarise, train and mobilise Singaporeans in the eventual event of an actual terrorist attack.
With Singapore’s terrorism threat alert at an all time high, this is perhaps an important step to take in preparing for an event that even ministers admit will happen eventually.
So, we at YP SG decided to test it out to see if the hate was really worth it.
The app has four main sections – a report page, an emergency call feature, a newsfeed and a “Get Ready” information section.
The report page is pretty okay. Its simple, straightforward and at the end of the day, practical. Chances are, if you see a suspicious item on a train, it makes sense to send it via this app instead of Whatsapping it to the police.
The emergency call feature though…not so much. It just contains the numbers of the police and the civil defence. Chances are, if you’re old enough to use a phone, you would know these numbers.
The alerts page shows you a map of Singapore with reported terrorist threats. Mine was empty, so that’s a good thing, definitely.
Finally, the Get Ready section essentially relinks you to the online SGSecure page, which isn’t exactly very useful in that sense. It does however, give you two video tutorials on how to react to an attack, and to learn improvised first aid skills. Those are pretty useful, but we recommend watching them beforehand.
Overall, we give it 3 out of 5 stars. It has a good purpose and is sort of useful, but the execution could have been better.
