Best Social Apps For Coronavirus Social Distancing
Social
distancing is a very important practice used in fighting against the deadly
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to WHO, the best way to stop the
virus spread is to avoid large crowds and also stay 3
meters apart when communicating with people.
Social
distancing has affected 90% of all daily activities worldwide, people don’t go
out to watch their favourite sports teams play, movements have been forcefully
halted through lockdowns, inter-state and inter-country travelling has been
prohibited as all air, land, and seaports have been barricaded.
Keeping
in touch with family, colleagues, and friends outside your home has been limited
to texting and video calls which eventually gets boring.
Thankfully,
with the help of technology, the term “social distancing” is rapidly changing
to “physical distancing” because although we may be miles apart from our
friends, there are applications that can help keep the social life going until
the virus has been successfully defeated.
Listed
below are six applications that keep you socially connected throughout the COVID-19
isolation.
BUNCH
This
is one of my favourite social distancing apps because unlike most traditional
video calling applications, Bunch allows users to play games together while
video calling. The app is very easy to set up, just install, invite your
friends and choose from the vast list of available games.
This
app is suitable for all kind of gamers because it supports all genre of games
from Action, Trivia, Adventure, and Board Games. So if you want to share some
jokes and see the smile on the faces of your buddies while playing Minecraft or you just want to give
that cool face when you score more kills than your friends while playing Fortnite,
Buddy is the best app to give you this experience throughout this COVID-19
isolation.
Bunch
is available on both Android
and iOS
stores for free download.
HOUSEPARTY
Turn
up! Turn up! It’s party time!!!
Houseparty
as the name implies, is a social video calling app that is quite similar to
Skype. As Skype is mostly used by Organizations and Government officials to communicate
with Staff and stay collaborative, Houseparty is the less formal variant that
still offers similar video calling user interface.
Unlike
conventional video calling apps that require calling a contact before connecting
to the video call, Houseparty instantly drops you in a video call with any
contact that is currently online or in group video calls with your friends.
As the
worldwide pandemic continuously forces us apart, the main aim of Houseparty is
to use video calls, games and quizzes to bring us closer to our loved ones and acquaintances.
Houseparty
is rapidly spreading like wildfire, gaining popularity in all featured app
stores. Bunch is free to download for iOS and Android
users, while PC users can get it as an extension
on their Google Chrome browser.
QUARANTINE
TOGETHER
For
some people, online dating is a difficult activity and they don’t really thrive
well in it, so imagine trying online dating during this pandemic when the chances
of seeing the person in the nearest future keeps getting slimmer.
Quarantine
Together was made specifically for this lockdown period, it is an online dating
app that (the Tinder of CoronaVirus) that aims at matching people during
this lockdown.
Aside
its social functions, one notable feature of this app is its daily healthy reminder
that asks if you have washed your hands today. After the handwashing awareness
has been made, you will be matched with a random user to a 15 minutes text chat,
after that, you will get a link for video chat with that user.
Quarantine
Together video chat feature keeps you connected to that special person until you
get to meet them, it also gives you lots of experiences with the person that
you can eventually talk about when you meet. For single people, this app gives
you the opportunity to build a good relationship with other people and maybe
find love.
Quarantine
together can be accessed from the official website.
NETFLIX
PARTY
Cinemas,
and Play Theaters are all closed, movie night with friends has also been hit by
the pause button, the release date for most 2020 movies has been postponed (this is
a real disaster for movie lovers like myself). Not having movies to watch or
recycling old movies and series can get boring during this COVID-19
lockdown.
Netflix
Party (might sound new to many people) has been existing for several years but has
gotten more popular due to this isolation. This app allows you to watch movies
with your friends and still have good moments together. Download the extension
from your Google Chrome Store, choose from the long list of available Netflix
programs, a shareable link will be generated which you can share with your friends.
The playback and video control are synchronized with all of your friends, so
the movie/series starts at the same time, and if it gets paused by a user then
everyone else’s video gets paused too. Along with this, it also has a chat
feature embedded that allows you to instantly share your reaction to what is
happening on the screen and your watch buddies get to see your reaction.
RAVE
This is
a Canadian-developed app that took the Netflix Party idea and added more
advanced features to it. Rave allows users to simultaneously watch the same
contents while having a voice and text chat about it. This app is not just
limited to one video platform, it supports YouTube, Netflix, Dropbox, Reddit,
Vimeo and more.
The mind-blowing
feature of this app is that you can also make new friends by joining public
raves where you can exchange reactions and opinions with other people from
around the world, make jokes and have a good laugh. For more fun, participants
in a specific Rave can vote on what video they want to watch next.
Rave
is available on both Android
and iOS
stores for free download.
ZOOM
Zoom!!
When I first heard this name, I thought about the speedster villain from The
Flash, but no this Zoom gives more joy than tears.
Since
the coronavirus outbreak and social distancing started, Zoom has been the most sort
after video calling app by corporations and businesses because it supports conference
calls. Although it is popular amongst businesses, this app is also used by
family and friends who are far apart and want to have a group video call for a family reunion, class discussions, and other kinds of get-together.
Users
are allowed to customize their user interface changing the layout of how users
see each other and also setting playful, colourful backgrounds.
The
free version of Zoom allows users to enjoy unlimited one-on-one calls but group
calls are limited for 40 minutes. The premium version allows unlimited calls
for both one-on-one and large groups, call recording and other great features
to make a great video calling experience with your friends throughout this
coronavirus lockdown.
Zoom
is available for download to mobile users on iOS and Android
platforms. The desktop app is available for macOS
and Windows users.
20 Comments
Lipstick Cafe – This all sound like amazing ideas. I will use some!
We have been using Zoom a ton. It's such a great way to have meetings and parties virtually.
ZOOM! Perfect for our virtual bonding with my buddies. Good thing one of my friends has a premium access and it took us more than 4 hours in our last zoom session. Great app! 🙂
WOW, who would have thought there would have been a pandemic dating app! Thanks for sharing
The only app I knew from those you shared is zoom. We need everything that can make us close as we are physically distant.
Ohh…will check out the rest as I have been using Zoom quite often. Thanks for sharing this. cheers, siennylovesdrawing
It's my first time to hear about these apps. The Netflix Party sounds interesting! Will have to check that! Thanks for these!
Cool list of apps to help us survive this pandemic. Thank you.
I really like zoom, it is such a great app to connect with family and friends.
hi
this is indeed a useful post in the ongoing pandemic , i think i will defintley try out rave. Have you tried any of the above apps and how did you like the experience
I've never heard of all these apps, except Zoom. Thanks for compiling them.
Thank you for this list of apps! I didn't know that some of these existed!
I have only heard of Houseparty and Zoom, which the latter is used here. But I like to watch movies with Discord.
I’ve only been using zoom ! I’ll be trying these other ones when my friends though
my friends and I are always on zoom! I hadn't heard of all of these others. Giving Bunch a try this weekend
I spent some of my quarantine time playing mobile COD and on discord. I also went live on Instagram a few times. Zoom – I am having trouble installing but I heard it's good. Thank you for these recommendations!
The NETFLIX eats a lot of our time, lol. I like that we can use so many free apps for this isolation.
I've never heard about this social distancing apps but I'm interesting to NETFLIX PARTY apps because I love watching netflix.
Love your apps For Coronavirus social distancing! I'll be checking out Houseparty for sure!
These are some helpful apps we need to try this pandemic crisis. Netflix movies really helps me to cope boredom. I am starting to use Zoom app for our meetings too.