In a twist on the Uber-for-everything trend, a company in Russia is launching a service that allows users to organize a funeral via a smartphone app.

Called Umer, apparently the Russian word for “he’s dead” and also an obvious play on the name Uber, the service is designed to make it easier for grief-stricken relatives unfamiliar with the process to arrange the funerals of their nearest and dearest according to the BBC.

Those with a body they need sorted out are prompted to input the deceased’s name, date of death, religion and address. In return, they are given prices from a range of cemeteries and funeral directors, including options such as whether they want the body cremated or buried and what sort of gravestone they would like. Once having decided the what, where and how of corpse disposal, users are then connected with their choice of funeral director to finalize the arrangement.

“It seems like we’ve automated everything except death,” Project Manager Dmitriy Geranin wrote on Facebook. “I want to fix this.”

If that sounds a little morbid, the Umer website itself doesn’t hold back either. Its sales pitch reads: “The death of loved ones knocks out of the rut. We will not help you survive the loss, but will tell [you] what documents to gather and offer a good option of burial or cremation.”

Apparently not everyone is fond of the idea of commoditizing death into an on-demand app. The BBC noted that while some Russians believe that the app is unlikely to take off thanks of low levels of Internet use in Russia, others object to the very idea “for reasons of taste,” including one user referring to it as being “utterly inappropriate.”

Others saw the positive in the Uberization of death, or at least they couldn’t resist some gallows humor. “I wonder if there will be any discounts for return customers,” one person said. Another suggested that Umer could run a promotion along the lines of “bring a friend and get a 15 percent discount.”

Image credit: ifl/Flickr/CC by 2.0