Yapple: Wrong Number

Somebody's calling. You don't know who. They don't know you either.

Yapple turns your iPhone into a chunky, plasticky, early-2000s flip phone, and strangers keep calling it by mistake. Once or twice a day, it rings. Pick up and someone's already talking: a grandpa who remembers when phones were a rock, a horse clinic chasing your horse's warranty, a pirate who wants to know where you buried it, your mom asking if you've eaten, a goat. You can't quite make out what they're saying. The subtitles can, mostly. You never say a word.

THERE'S A MYSTERY TO SOLVE Some of them keep calling back, and they're all looking for the same man. This used to be his number. Listen closely: the clues are in the calls. Work out who to ring, dial them, and find out what happened to him.

DIAL A WORD The keypad works. Spell a word on the letters and press green, and over 500 numbers pick up. GOAT. PIZZA. COFFEE. The SUN, but only at night. 666, where Mom shares a line with the Devil. 911 is open weekdays, nine to five.

MADE FOR IPHONE DUO Folded, the little outside screen shows who's calling and the whole thing buzzes. Open it to answer: the caller starts talking the moment the hinge cracks open. Snap it shut to hang up. Open, the wide inner screen puts their face beside their name. On every other iPhone it's the phone flipped open in your hand, and the green and red keys do the hinge's job.

YOURS, FOREVER Pick your phone's colour on the first day: cream, translucent purple, lime green, hot pink, baby blue or grey. You can never change it. Then it wears in, call by call: scuffs, grubby keys, a creaky hinge, and near the end a cracked screen and a line of dead pixels.

Calls ring as notifications, so it rings even when the app is closed. No accounts, nothing to sign up for. Just a phone that keeps getting the wrong number.

Discovery signals