Column by Katherine Hunt

Hunt is a senior marketing and management double major and can be reached at [email protected]

As a career driven person, I tend to go for larger internships. Larger internships are in larger cities. This means that I have to leave my significant other here in Des Moines for days, weeks or even months at a time. As a couple of two years, I wanted a way to stay in contact that was a little more intimate than texting with smiley faces. In the App store, there is an app called Couple, and it really does make a large difference in a long-distance relationship.

Couple has several wonderful points. The best part about Couple is that it’s free. Being a broke college student, this means everything to me. Furthermore, Couple introduces some interesting ways to connect with your better half.

There’s live sketching where couples draw together on the same notepad to create a masterpiece made together. These works of art can actually be saved to the pictures section of a phone. Another cute feature is “thumb-kissing.” If the two lovers have their finger in the same place on each of their phone screen, the iPhone screen turns pink, showing that you have “kissed” your partner. For the more risqué couples, there’s even a setting to send secret photos that can only be unlocked with an agreed upon password and deleted the same way.  There is also a special button within the messaging section that looks like a cartoon speech bubble. This bubble has the message “thinking of you.” The overall interface is also very user-friendly and is set up similar to the iPhone app version of Facebook, making finding one’s way around the app a piece of cake.

However, Couple is not the perfect app. There is an exceptional amount of lag, even if the couple is sitting next to each other. Also, both lovers must have an iPhone or Android for the app to function properly. Also, the calendar feature only allows birthdays and anniversaries to be entered. This means that no special date or other critical moments to the couple can be entered and has to be entered in a different, less popular section of Couple. Lastly, there are also a couple of unnecessary features for this app that aren’t needed. The main example is a “lists” feature. It does exactly what it sounds like and keeps a list of whatever is written down. However, most of the target market couples don’t really have many list-style things to share, except for maybe groceries if the relationship is that serious. Another useless feature is the connection to FaceTime (iPhone’s version of Skype). Most iPhones already have this feature installed and when used through Couple, it drains the battery quicker than watching a full-length feature on the phone.

I would recommend this app to any couple that end up having to be separated for any length of time exceeding a few days. The app is adorable especially for the hopeless romantic types like myself. While it is not perfect, Couple still offers a variety of ways to connect with your loved one while apart and for free.