8 Sociable apps to stay connected with friends

Starting to miss your mates? Want to find some sociable ways to keep in touch rather than just Facetiming all the time? While it really sucks that we can’t visit anyone outside of our households, staying home is the kindest thing we can do for our friends and families right now. Instead, why not stay connected with some of the fun, sociable Apps that are available to download to keep you and your loved ones entertained from your sofa? From virtual quizzes, Instagram challenges, throwing your own virtual house party to getting creative on TikTok, here are the best apps for socialising right now…

House Party

The new craze! Get all of your friends on the House Party app and take part in group video conversations while also playing a ton of different games. The awesome thing about House Party is that if you’re ever feeling lonely, you can see what conversations are going on at any one time and can simply ‘Join’ in – a bit like a virtual house party. Whether you want to play some trivia quizzes or simply see how many friends you can get into fancy dress in one chat, House Party is a great way to tackle boredom and to stay connected.

Just remember to lock your chat if you don’t want any surprise joinees. Picture the horror of your aunt from America making a special appearance during your weekly catch up with friends! 

Psych 

Get competitive with your friends with the Psych App, a sociable game masterminded by talk show host Ellen Degeneres. This is one of our favourite virtual gaming apps where you can play live party games with the people you know. You can choose from a variety of fun categories in which each player makes up fake answers to real trivia questions – and you have to guess which is the real answer! It’s a real fun way to connect with friends (and get some little tricks in while at it). Who can catch their friends out the most? Just make sure to have a good Wifi connection.

Instagram 

Since the national lockdowns have been announced, people have been taking to Instagram to keep themselves occupied and to have a good laugh with their mates. Whether it’s posting your baking creations or nominating friends for different Instagram challenges (like the press up challenge), Instagram is a great way to stay connected with your friends and family. Keep up-to-date with what your friends are getting up to during isolation through their Instagram stories, find inspiration from others and spread messages of positivity on your own account. 

Fight List

This family-feud style trivia game is the perfect app to play with friends or family while stuck in isolation. With Fight List, you’ll be given a category and in 40 seconds have to come up with as many words as possible that are associated with it. With over 1000 different themes, the aim of the game is finding more answers than your opponent to win the match! You want to try and rank higher than all your mates. This is a game that will really keep you engaged and kick your competitive spirit into action. 

TikTok

This is an app that is sure to keep you entertained for hours. TikTok doesn’t just connect you to friends but will introduce you to a whole new world of hilarious short videos made by TikTokers from across the globe. Get in the know with the latest TikTok challenges, the biggest trends and new music, plus find a whole new community you never knew existed. Before you know it, you’ll be laughing out loud at your screen and sharing your fav TikTok videos with your friends. It feels like you're being sociable, even though you aren’t.

Skype

Good old Skype! You can’t forget about this awesome app during lockdown. It’s a great (free) way to video chat with friends all over the world. Whether you have an iPhone, Android or other kind of smartphone, Skype works for everyone. Skype works similarly to Facetime, except you don’t have to be an iPhone user so this is a great option if you’re looking to video chat with friends who have different phone brands.

Zoom

A lot of companies have started using Zoom to communicate with their teams while working from home. But now, loads of people are getting the reliable app during isolation to keep in touch with their friends and families too. With Zoom, you can have group video chats for free for up to 40 minutes. It’s a little more private compared to House Party (because nobody can join your chat voluntarily) and it’s great if you’re looking for an app that allows you to have a clear, good quality conversation without glitches and problems with audio. 

Marco Polo

Marco Polo is unlike other video apps because you don’t need to be live. You can send video notes (a bit like Whatsapp voice notes) but with your face, and you and your friends can reply in your own time. This is a great app for busy people who may be working from home, cooking up a storm in the kitchen or those who have little ones to look after so they have less time to be around for video calls. It allows for virtual socialising to be more flexible, with less pressure to go on a live chat at a specific time. Marco Polo is great for people who have different schedules to their friends and it’s also free with no time limit.