AN application that challenges you to keep a hobo alive on your mobile has become the UK's most popular download.

iHobo was launched two weeks ago as a Tamagotchi of sorts - users adopt a homeless person and care for them for three days.

Using Apple Push Notification technology, the app sends users alerts to let them know when their hobo is hungry or needs shelter.

The iHobo lives in your phone, and every now and then, they'll tap on the screen, sometimes asking for money, sometimes just needing someone to talk to.

If you're there for your iHobo, they'll get through the day.

If you're not, you're given a harsh insight into just what kind of trial surviving on a day-to-day basis is for those who live on the streets.

A blogger for GamesRadar tells of how his iHobo woke him up in the middle of night. He told his owner that he'd sold the sleeping bag he'd given him in order to buy drugs.

Some time later, he was woken up again by the iHobo saying he was cold now he had no sleeping bag.

Another user said he'd missed a call for help and woke to find his iHobo had gone on to accept drugs from a dealer. He died the next day of an overdose.

As of yesterday, more than 200,000 Britons had an iHobo on their mobile.

And while it might sound like tasteless entertainment, iHobo's role is actually anything but.

Billed as "the world's first live action charity iPhone app", iHobo was developed by UK charity trust Depaul with the aim of provoking conversations about the cause of homeless people.

Once your three days of caring for a hobo are up, Depaul UK uses the app to ask for a donation.

"It is deliberately designed to provoke conversations about youth homelessness and so its name and content had to be able to cause a reaction," Depaul UK chief executive Paul Marriott told MediaWeek after the app was launched.



