Long-distance love (& foreplay) via apps

She is 'thinking of him', he draws her a 'flower', when they first 'thumbkiss' her heart 'skips a beat', and they text happily ever after. So goes the modern-day fairy tale played out in virtual castles built at the touch of a finger. Love, too, has adapted to the demands of a fast-paced, tech savvy lifestyle and found expression on the ubiquitous smartphone.

A survey in China recently reported that rising smartphone usage was ruining marriages and dividing fami lies in the country. It's one among nu merous studies to blame technology for eating into relationships. Techpre neurs are now countering this trend with apps that feed romance. Love apps are helping partners -separated by distance, tight schedules, or both -build amorous bridges.

"In a long-distance relationship, using the app 'Couple' makes me feel like a big part of my boyfriend's life.It allows us to make shared to-do lists, draw together, and listen to the same music. I can even send him a 'thinking about you' ping without starting a conversation," says Ayesha Kapur, 25, who stays in Chennai and has recently taken to the app to stay connected with her partner in Delhi. Couple, with over 3.5 million downloads on Google Play Store, also has a private messaging service that includes selfdestruct messages, and a mawkish 'thumbkiss' feature, which makes the screen go red and the phone vibrate on both ends if the pair touches the same area on their screens.

But romantic gestures isn't the only area where these apps score over more popular services like WhatsApp. "Newsfeeds are always busy with information about other people, but a dating relationship is intimate," says Jake Park, CEO of Between, which he describes as a quiet room in the middle of a loud, bustling city. Unlike other messaging apps, a love app lets you pair with only one contact.

It's the reason Mugdha Sharma, a 23-year-old marketing professional in Mumbai, downloaded one for her boyfriend in the capital. "Most of the communication, even work-related, happens on WhatsApp today. An app exclusively for him helps me separate the important alerts," says Sharma. She also finds it more secure as the pictures they share on the app aren't accessible in the phone gallery but in a password-protected folder.

In fact, such apps may have changed the idea of long-distance connections, feels Nishant Shah, co-founder of the Centre for Internet and Research. "It is not easy for people to meet each other every day. I now know couples who are in a long-distance relationship while living in the same city , and these apps help to build structures of private communication and affection even though their physical lives might not intersect often," says Shah.