(CNN) Do you want to send a kiss to your far away lover? A Chinese contraption with warm, moving silicone “lips” seems to have just the right answer.
The device, touted to allow couples “real” physical intimacy over long distances, has caused a stir among Chinese social media users, who have reacted with both intrigue and shock.
Equipped with pressure sensors and actuators, the device is said to be able to mimic a real kiss by reproducing the pressure, movement and temperature of a user’s lips.
Along with the kissing motion, it can also transmit the sound that the user is making.
While many social media users saw a funny side to the device, others criticized it as “vulgar” and “creepy”. Some expressed concerns that minors could buy and use it.
“I don’t understand (the device) but I am deeply shocked,” a top commenter said on Weibo.
On the Twitter-like platform, multiple hashtags have garnered hundreds of millions of views across the device over the past week.
To send a kiss, users need to download a mobile app and plug the device into their phone’s charging port. After pairing with their partners in the app, couples can start a video call and share copies of their hickeys with each other.
The kissing device is promoted as a way to share physical intimacy between distant couples.
According to China’s state-run Global Times, the invention was patented by the Changzhou Vocational Institute of Mechatronic Technology.
“I was in a long-distance relationship with my girlfriend at my university, so the only contact we ever had was over the phone. That’s where the inspiration for this device came from,” Jiang Zhongli, the design’s leading inventor, was quoted as saying by the Global Times.
It said Jiang applied for a patent in 2019, but the patent expired in January 2023, and Jiang now hopes someone else can expand and perfect the design.
A similar invention, the “Kissinger”, was brought to market in 2016 by the Imagineering Institute in Malaysia. But it came in the form of a touch-sensitive silicone pad rather than realistic-looking lips.
While promoting long-distance relationships, the Chinese device also allows users to anonymously pair up with strangers in the app’s “Kissing Square” feature. When two strangers successfully match and like each other, they can ask to exchange kisses.
Users can also “upload” their Smooches to the app for others to download and experience.
On China’s largest online shopping website Taobao, dozens of users have shared their reviews of the device, which is priced at 288 yuan ($41).
“My partner didn’t believe (distance) kissing was possible at first, so her jaw dropped when she used it… This is the best surprise I’ve given her during our long-distance relationship,” one user commented.
“Thank you technology.”