With the plethora of applications available across all the major platforms, it seems there’s nothing a smartphone app can’t help you with. And now for those who to spend part of their days exploiting the insecurities of people for their own amusement, Yahoo! Japan has released Kisushiyo!, an app that secretly photographs women as they would look when going in for a smooch.

Granted it’s a novelty app that might not appeal to those without a sweet tooth for schadenfruede. However, the story of how this app became available to Android phones everywhere is an interesting look into the state of the internet.

■ “Fortune Candle”

Kisushiyo! is very simple in concept. It poses as another app called Fortune Candle. A flickering candle can be seen on the smartphone screen. The instructions tell the victim, “Close your eyes. Breathe your wish and blow out the magic candle’s flame.”

The application takes the victim’s picture after detecting them blowing on the screen, thus capturing them pouting beautifully and making a face much like one their partner would see just before a kiss. You may then enjoy playfully defusing the awkward situation you just created.

■ From 2-chan to market in 10 days

The original idea for Kisushiyo! came from the online message board 2-channel in a thread posted on 8 December under the title, “I just thought of a great app idea lololololol.” Here is what the anonymous poster wrote:

“There’s a candle with a flickering flame on the screen.
You tell the girl, “Blow it out!” lololol.
When her breath hits the screen, a silent camera goes off at the same time the flame does.
Then you get a kiss-face picture of the girl.”

The idea was met with great applause and celebration among 2-chan users who called it “freakin’ genius” and admitted “I’m honestly impressed.” From there the idea alone went viral among Japanese websites. Somewhere along the way we can only assume it fell into the lap of someone at Yahoo! who went ahead and realized it.

Only a little over ten days since the 2-chan post was made, Yahoo! released Kisushiyo on Google Play for free on 19 December. Since then it was has been downloaded over 10,000 times.

I guess the moral of the story is; be careful about tossing ideas out on the internet anonymously. You never know who is reading and has the funds to make it happen. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a Christmas party to attend and try out my new Fortune Candle app.

Source: Yahoo! Labs Japan, Google Play – Kisushiyo, 2-chan via Netlab (Japanese)