New app with familial ties to the School of Dentistry helps support safe businesses
Jason and Elijah Whang are brothers and co-creators of Co-Crit: Safety Reviews, a free mobile app that crowdsources reviews of businesses’ COVID-19 safety practices. The app is designed to arm consumers with information so they can feel safe venturing out to support their favorite businesses again.
The Whang brothers are the sons of Kyumin Whang, PhD, Barry K. Norling Endowed Professor in the Department of Comprehensive Dentistry. Dr. Whang couldn’t be prouder of how this not-for-profit app came about.
“While stuck home doing distance learning for the last few months, Jason and Elijah wanted to do something to help with the fight against COVID-19,” he explains. “When they realized the tension between keeping businesses open and keeping people safe, they developed Co-Crit”.
In an interview with News4SA’s Simone De Alba, Elijah explains that the name Co-Crit is a play on words. “Co as in together and crit as in critique,” he shares.
Jason explains that the app’s user will be taken to a map which can be used to search for any business located anywhere in the world. If another Co-Crit user has left a critique, all users will be able to view the safety measures that business has taken to keep their customers safe.
“We have a lot of favorite restaurants and businesses that we frequent and a lot of them are very, very safe and they really are doing their best, so we want to support them,” Jason says in his News4SA interview.
Dr. Whang indicates that for the app to become really useful, Jason and Elijah need users’ help in writing reviews about the businesses they visit. Users can leave a star rating for how safe they feel visiting an establishment, whether or not the business routinely disinfects surfaces, if hand sanitizer is made available, or if social distancing is being enforced.
A step-by-step YouTube video was created by Jason’s and Elijah’s sister, Alexis. The 43-second stop-motion video describes the application and provides download information.
Jason Whang is a senior at Brown University, Elijah Whang is a junior at BASIS San Antonio – Shavano Campus, and Alexis Whang is a first year pharmacy student at the University of Texas. The Whangs announced that all proceeds from the app are donated to Feeding America.
