5 Great Free Apps That Pair Well With
Friends
Virtual
staring contests, long-distance TV watching, newfangled link-sharing, and more.
Just
because your smartphone is the most personal of your devices doesn't mean you
should sit on a beanbag chair in your closet, salty tears navigating the gentle
slopes of your cheekbones while you play the part of the modern-day hermit.
No!
Connect with your friends, each of you sitting miles apart on your respective
beanbag chairs—alone, yet together.
Back
when I was your age, we used to email links to each other like common savages.
You kids these days have it easy. Pushbullet (Android, iOS) lets you send links directly to your
friends' phones as you're enjoying it, gloriously interrupting whatever they're
doing with a notification alerting them that they should be paying attention to
whatever you're doing. There's even a built-in chat feature so you can discuss
poignant listicles as a group.
Lots
of people are lovin' ooVoo for its video-chat product, but the company's got a
fun side project in Flinch (Android, iOS). You and a buddy pair off in a phone-to-phone staring
contest, with the app using facial recognition to deduce who smiles first. If
matches turn into stalemates, you can use hokey pictures and sounds to try to
make your opponent crack. And should you be feeling particularly adventurous,
you can go face-to-face with a stranger.
You're
on your phone the entire time you're "watching" TV anyway, right?
Might as well be chatting with people "watching" the same show as
you. Try Beamly (Android, iOS), which lets you interact with your friends
as shows are being broadcast. You can keep the conversations going in
show-specific rooms long after airtime, too, ensuring thorough commiseration
over the whole Scott-and-Kourtney tragedy that's deeply affecting all 320
million Americans and countless others around the world right now.
Relieve
the glory days of push-to-talk service. Voxer (Android, iOS) turns your phone into a walkie-talkie,
letting you and your friends instantly bandy your musings to and fro. You can
add text, photos, and location information for some additional color, and if
nobody's home on the other end, you can leave old-school voice messages for
them to listen to later.
The
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge took the world by storm last year, and Challenged
(Android, iOS) hopes to keep the good times going by scouring the web
looking for social video challenges. Fire up the app and see what everyone's up
to, whether participating in charitable events, pay-it-forward pleasantries, or
just goofing off. You can set up your own public or private challenges, daring
your friends to participate.
Stream.me (Android, iOS) lets you watch live video games, music, and
other creative streams with friends. You can broadcast yourself as well.
By
Doug Aamoth
http://www.fastcompany.com/3048963/app-economy/5-great-free-apps-that-pair-well-with-friends?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-weekly-newsletter&position=4&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=
No comments:
Post a Comment