We’re living in dark times. You can’t head out to your favourite restaurant just because you feel like ‘Mexican’, or grab a cup of your favourite coffee from that cute hipster-friendly coffee shop, and should we even bring up the subject of not being able to catch up with friends over cocktails?! Yes, we are aware there are bigger problems out there, but today we’d like to bring your attention to an app that lets you stay connected to your friends, in a fun, casual way.
Launched in 2016, the app by Meerkat, has now gained popularity as practically half the world is in lockdown. The app, aptly called Houseparty, allows you to step into chat rooms when your friends are online. You can have the app on in the background and pop in and out of chat rooms whenever you want. Unlike FaceTime or Skype, where you have to call a specific friend, this one allows you get into different chat rooms with multiple friends without calling them.
You can find out which friends are ‘in the house’ through alerts from the app. Notification will let you choose which house party you want to join. It also allows users to play games with friends. Each house party has a maximum of eight people, and if you do not want someone to know you are online, you can opt for the ‘ghosting’ option through which that particular friend will not get a notification when you open the app.
Available for Android and iOS.