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One new recently-released app has a very specific sort of purpose for those who download it. It lets them upload their supposed UFO photos.
The app platform Enigma Labs has developed its odd new tool with the argument that it wants to “advance progress on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) using cutting-edge technology and social intelligence”.
UAP is the more fashionable modern word for what most of us used to know of as UFOs.
As for the social intelligence part, it might just work, though it’s hard to believe that an app like this will not be absolutely flooded with fakes, especially in the age of near-instant generative AI image manipulation.
An interesting detail about Enigma Labs itself is that the company likes to take the “enigma” part of its name quite seriously.
Even its CEO is only known as “A” and keeps her real name private, claiming this to be out of worries over harassment and privacy. Fair enough, but it certainly helps their marketing angle too.
The company has garnered press coverage from Vice Magazine, The New Yorker and others and, according to Vice, claims that its project aims to chart UAP encounters worldwide so as to become a sort of Wikipedia of UFO/UAP sightings.
Users can use the app to freely upload any photo of what they think may be an inexplicable object or phenomenon in the sky, even if many of these images turn out to be misidentified normal events.
Examples could include satellites, SpaceX rockets, meteors (which can glow in many colors depending on mineral composition) unusual weather patterns, uncommon cloud formations, and of course, normal consumer drones.
consumer drones can very easily be mistaken for UFOs in modern times due to their unusual flight patterns
Enigma wants users to do this so that eventually, the chaff can be filtered from the hay and photos of genuinely odd provenance can be further cataloged for more careful scrutiny.
As Enigma Labs CEO “A” explained it to The New Yorker in an interview in early 2024, she wants the app to act somewhat like a Shazam for unknown objects in the skies.
To this CEO’s credit, she steers clear of a hardcore UFO conspiracy narrative and argues that the app is just a tech and data solution to an unusual mystery.
In any case, the new app from Enigma Labs is called “Enigma” and is currently available for both iPhone and iPad devices.
As far as we can see, there’s no Android version quite yet but the company’s desktop/browser website does let users submit photos too.
The basic process for using the Enigma app is pretty simple: A user can upload their media files along with a description of what was seen, where, at what time, and for how long, among other details.
The app also has a camera feature in its iOS version that lets users record uncompressed video with embedded metadata for precise details about the recording.
Enigma also offers selections of photos and videos of known aerial phenomena that can easily be mistaken for UFOs for the sake of helping users easily identify something they’re seeing as normal before they upload.
On the Apple App Store, the Enigma app has a pretty good overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars with 1,300 ratings so far and is free to use. Enigma Labs instead seems to focus on selling UFO-related merchandise as a key revenue stream.
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