iPhone to the rescue

One CLEO staffer (who chooses to be anonymous for obvious reasons) was once enduring a bad date ("he was a snobby investment banker who loved telling me how much he earned and how great he was") when she decided to take a toilet break and call a friend she was meeting later that night.

"I was regaling her with my tale of how badly it was going and how much I wanted to get away from him," Anonymous CLEO Staffer recalled.

"When I came out of the bathroom he was there too. He politely asked me if I wanted to go and meet my friend. It was only then I realised the bathrooms were unisex and he'd most likely heard everything I'd said."

Ouch. But this situation doesn't need to happen to anyone on an awkward date ever again thanks to a new app created by dating website eharmony.com.

The Bad Date Rescue app, launched just this week, allows users to arrange for a fake call to appear on their phone from a real person in their phone's contact list (the contact's photo even comes up!). Just program the time you want the call to come through and choose from a range of conversation scripts, including your boss needing you urgently or a neighbour calling about a leaking pipe.

"It graciously allows you to play along and to get out of that situation," Arvind Mishra, director of product management at eHarmony explained.

"There are all sorts of reasons for why people want to get out of a date. We are helping them do it in a way that is fun and light and not abrupt," he added.

Have you ever been in a situation where The Bad Date Rescue app would have come in handy? Share your dating horror stories with us on Facebook or Twitter, or in the comments below.

By Erin Van Der Meer