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Staying Connected: the Best Apps for Girlfriends


Girl Time During COVID-19


It should come as no surprise that at She Explores Life, we value female friendships above most personal connections. In fact, our little site wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for my bond—and ability to communicate—with some of my best girlfriends. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine and shelter-in-place measures being put in place, my ability to spend time with or travel to visit some of my closest friends has been incredibly limited. With one of my best friends going through breast cancer and another living with an autoimmune disorder, I’ve had to take advantage of my technology and find the best apps in order to keep in touch with my loved ones and stay sane.

The following are some of the best apps for staying in touch with your best girlfriend during the COVID-19 Pandemic.



7 of the Best Apps For Friends


Marco Polo

A quick and informal poll of the women on my social networks and the answer came back fast and clear and loud. Marco Polo is the favored app among women. This video app is easy to use and fun, fun, fun. Just start your video, say what you need to say and you’re done. If the friend you are messaging happens to have their phone, they can watch you live and interrupt you with emojis and short videos that pop up with their responses. If not, the video saves and they can watch it when they have free time to respond.

What we like best: It’s fun to see your friends throughout the day in various environments. They can share the cool things they are doing without committing to a long discussion, and there’s nothing like an unexpected video touch-base with your bestie.

WhatsApp

This app made our list for best apps for friends because it is favored by women who travel. It is especially useful if you travel internationally where data and phone plans often get sketchy. Free and easy to use, WhatsApp uses your phone’s cellular or Wi-Fi connection for messaging and voice calling. If you lose data, no worries, you can still stay connected. I’ve found it often works better than all other options while traveling by air.

What we like best: WhatsApp is great for both one-on-one chats and group discussions. Plus, because it uses your phone’s 4G, 3G, 2G, EDGE, or Wi-Fi connection instead of your cell plan’s voice minutes or text plan, WhatsApp is completely free. And if you’re connected via Wi-Fi, it won’t eat into your data plan.

Instagram

While you probably don’t need an introduction to this app, it’s still worth mentioning here. This visual platform allows you to see your best friends’ life in full color. While it was once an app with fairly limited functionality, now you can follow your friends’ daily adventures through their stories, which appear at the top of your screen in little circles. Here you’ll find snaps, videos, boomerangs and other fun snippets of all the cool things they are doing. You can also direct message and group message through Instagram, making it a decent option for communication.

What we like best: Recently Instagram has created the “close friends” options for stories. This means, you don’t have to share your more personal moments with all of your followers, allowing for a more personalized experience with your best friends.

Facebook: Messenger/Facetime, Stories & Groups

Facebook gets mixed reviews among the masses, but there’s no denying that FB messenger is convenient and tends to work even when other facetime apps don’t. Additionally, the addition of Stories has made the social network a bit more interesting and desirable to use (FB owns Insta…of course). But one of the things I do love about FB is your ability to make and join moderated groups. Creating a closed group allows you and your friends a place to go and leave memes, photos, videos and posts throughout the day for one and other. You can also plan and manage gatherings with the event feature and take polls.

Finally, I have to admit, I use the Facebook video phone call app more than any other video phone call app. It tends to be more reliable than most…even Skype.

What we like best: Facebook is undeniably an all-in-one app. You can use it on your phone or your computer (making chat a whole lot faster). You can make phone calls and create stories…The options really are endless.

Viber

This app is quickly growing in popularity. You can leave voice and video messages for your best friends in a snap, make audio and video calls, create group chats, use cute stickers and gifs and so much more. If that’s not enough for you there are extensions that allow you to share things like music and videos right in your chat. You can even send money through the app!

What we like best: The end-to-end encryption keeps your convos safe. And let’s get real…there a girl’s locker room talk isn’t meant to be heard by all.

Kik

Speaking of Locker Room Talk. Sometimes the girls like to get down and dirty in their communications. Kik is probably one of the best sites for your awesomely inappropriate memes, photos, girl talk and more. You can use a fun screen name and participate in both personal and group chats. The app allows for video chat as well as video and voice messages.

What we like best: The option for anonymity and the incredible end-to-end encryption are some of this apps best feature. Beware though. Lots of creepers like this option for both of the aforementioned reasons.

Zoom

Zoom quickly gained popularity when shelter-in-place order started being put in place. This app allows friends to put together virtual events and gatherings (like happy-hour from home). While this app was created for businesses. Small friend groups have taken it up for online get-togethers that allow each user to see several people onscreen at once. One of the main drawbacks to this app is that it’s only free for up to 40 minute meetings at a time. And let’s get real, no one is in a position to fork out extra money at this time.


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Annette Benedetti
Annette Benedettihttps://sheexploreslife.com
Annette is a writer, editor and photographer from Portland, OR. Her work appears in a variety of publications including Bust, Red Tricycle, Motherly and Domino. When she’s away from her desk she can be found teaching women yoga at wilderness retreats, exploring new cities across the states and hiking the trails at Mt. Rainier—one of her favorite places on earth.
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