You can now have a boyfriend without actually having a boyfriend.
A new app called Invisible Boyfriend allows users to have text message conversations with real people that pretend to be your significant other. You can name your new boyfriend or girlfriend, give him or her a job and create interests you want your significant other to have.
Your invisible partner also calls you, leaves voicemails and listens to whatever you tell him or her. Sure, it costs $25 a month. But as Business Insider reported, it won’t make you seem like you're going to be #foreveralone.
And that’s the idea behind the app. Co-founder Matt Homann wanted his family to think he was dating someone new, even when he wasn’t.
"Around Thanksgiving, my mom called me and asked if she should set an extra place for someone I’m bringing,” Homann said on Invisible Boyfriend’s Web page. “In that moment I realized how great it would be to have an answer for her that didn’t require me to actually be dating someone."
According to Essence magazine, the app will get more sophisticated over time. It’s possible your invisible partner will send you gifts, flowers and notes. He or she may even sign up for Twitter.
Some interesting stories have come out from the Invisible Boyfriend trend. Charlotte Atler of Time magazine wrote last week that she asked her Invisible Boyfriend to marry her. Her invisible boyfriend, cleverly named Leonardo DiCaprio, told her he didn’t want her to meet his parents and didn’t think they’d get married.
So be careful when falling in love with this app. Sure, it sounds preposterous. But one of last year’s award-winning films, “Her,” showed that when you fall in love with a fake boyfriend or girlfriend, you can never have the true connection a human partner offers.
Email: hscribner@deseretdigital.com
Twitter: @herbscribner