You're locked out of your home with only your phone to help. What do you do? You could call a friend, but it could be late. You could call the police, but it's not an emergency services issue.

The solution is to find someone else who can help, irrespective of the time. Pinga is a social sharing app which enables you to find like-minded users who can help you in a situation. Locked out of home? Find someone with a ladder or perhaps a locksmith.

Pinga comes in particularly useful in sticky situations. Say you're cooking and can't easily get out to get an ingredient, but need something urgently, reach out to someone who is shopping and can help, then drop it off on the way back. Pinga immediately puts your request out within a 1km radius and will make it live for 30 minutes. On average a request is picked up within 5 minutes. If someone can help, they'll give you a price for the product you need picking up and negotiate a dropping off fee, which you can then pay securely online. Job done, goods delivered.

Expect to pay a delivery charge. The average so far has been £3.60 per delivery, which is a godsend if you can't get out easily.

You're not limited to food delivery. You could put a request for an essential charger or even put a request out for someone to help you with an odd job.

Of course, we'd always advise people to be wary. Pinga could be essential for an old person to request someone pick up a few essential items, but we do worry that they might end up being taken advantage of and charged a large delivery fee, if not careful. Still, you have the choice to carry out the transaction if you're happy with the fee provided, so you can always choose to decline.

Right now Pinga is being tested in two areas of the United Kingdom, Nottingham and East London.