New app prevents Icelanders from sleeping with their cousins

Iceland is a small nation with a population of just under 320,000, and all Icelanders are related. That also means every relationship between Icelanders is a relationship between relatives, though these relations are usually distant.

News of Iceland writes that confusion is common, saying "everyone has heard of (or experienced) it when someone goes all in with someone and then later runs into that person at a family gathering some other time."

For Icelanders wondering if the person they're interested in is really too closely related, a new app by Sad Engineer Studios will help. The Íslendinga App was created to work with the online family registry Íslendingabók. (The Book of Icelanders), which holds information about the families of about 720,000 individuals who were born in Iceland. The database can be found on islendingabok.is and everyone registered in the database has free access to it.

"Bump the app before you bump in bed" is the app's slogan, and it uses bump technology to allow users to tap their phones together to trade information. The app will alert them if they're too closely related to pursue a relationship.