The smartphone’s takeover of profound conversation is seemingly complete. It’s evident from the way devices have restructured our methods of communication, from Gen Z’s affinity for emoji-only text messaging, and from the various notifications constantly attacking our attention span. But the technology industry’s preferred method of generating revenue is to create voids, then fill them a few years later with clever products we didn’t know we needed.
Conversation-starter apps, a category on the rise, is the filler du jour. If you feel like you’ve been staring at your screen too long to remember how to ask deep, meaningful questions over dinner, this new breed of app can offer help.
Unlike simple messaging apps made for quick back-and-forth chatting, these tools are built for substantive conversations. They provide focused guidelines and prompts meant to foster meaningful connections, on or offline. For example, Party Qs is the smartphone version of a dinner party card deck, offering a wide array of questions divided into categories like Deep (“What’s your favorite memory of a lost loved one?”), Date Night (“What do you do with me that makes you happy?”), and Travel (“If you had to work remotely, from where would it be?”). The app is meant to be used in real-life situations like a family gathering or an intimate meal with a loved one.
LongWalks, an app from late 2019, keeps things virtual—the conversations stay contained on the smartphone screens of the participants. Each day, a prompt on a specific theme (Gratitude, Joy, Mindfulness) asks users to fill a blank in a statement like, “I finally crossed off [blank] off my bucket list.” You’re encouraged to add friends so you can see their answers and so they can see yours. Another tab within the app called Conversations offers different series of prompts to spark positive debates on subjects like “Things I Love About Our Family.” These are meant to be filled in collaboratively by a select group of friends or family members.
Fabriq, another app that launched last year, takes a slightly different route, allowing users to add their existing contacts and keep track of their friends’ and relatives’ birthdays, hobbies, and favorite films. It’s implied that a rich conversations about those things is the logical next step; the app urges users to “stay in touch and build better social habits” and sends notifications reminding them to connect with loved ones.
“The internet can answer all of your questions, but conversations about facts are terrible,” says Dave Schools, who cofounded Party Qs with Christian Paul Dehli. “Our questions get at who you are, your uniqueness, refining our conversation to being more personal.”
Cofounders Trishla Jain and Melody Mortazavi say their app LongWalks stemmed from a series of real-life, conversation-centric dinner parties led by Jain, the purpose of which was to bring strangers together and engage them in profound conversation. With the app, they want to make room for authenticity, a buzzword that, since the reign of Instagram, was declared nearly gone from social media platforms, only to be mobilized and monetized later by a new era of makeup-free influencers. “More than ever now, people want to talk about who they are, the truth in our lives,” Mortazavi says. “But it’s hard since you don’t want to be a person to ask the awkward question. We, the app, wanted to be that person.”
Both Party Qs and LongWalks start the conversation on the phone’s display, but both are meant to turn your focus toward real life instead of contributing to more screen time. The only activity users can do on the Party Qs app is swipe a question to the left to bring up the next one. No other engagement is required. “If you use it properly, you’ll get lost in a good conversation. That’s why we don’t want anything written,” says Schools, referring to the app’s interface. “Would we profit if we get more user retention? Yes, but we don’t want to include comments.” LongWalks cofounder Jain says the app serves as a “respite” from life’s stresses. “We’re all for a digital detox; rather than having a bad habit, try something a little different—a wellness ritual, a family reunion,” Jain says.
During the current Covid-19 pandemic, conversation apps suddenly shine in a new context. The natural environment for relationships has been disrupted; dinner parties, friend dates, and office gossip sessions are no longer available in the way they once were. Whether you’re confined to solitude and communicating with friends through Zoom, stuck spending too much time with your partner, or finding yourself in new and uncomfortable living situations (many millennials apparently moved back home due to the pandemic) having some help starting a meaningful conversation could be much appreciated.
