A woman texting her Invisible Boyfriend, presumably
Have you ever thought to yourself, I could really do with an invisible significant other (SO)?
Nah, me neither, but apparently some people feel they need a fake, invisible SO in their lives, so step in Invisible Boyfriend and Invisible Girlfriend.
It looks like these websites have been around for about a year but, alas, I have only gotten up to date with my invisible-boyfriend-market news lately.
Both websites work in exactly the same way and as, if I were in the market for fake love, I’d be visiting InvisibleBoyfriend.com, I’m going to focus on that one.
The website’s tagline is “Tired of being judged for being single? Build a boyfriend that works for you.”
Hahahahaha. Yeah, you are definitely going to be judged more for creating an invisible boyfriend than you ever were for being single. Just saying.
Invisible Boyfriend goes on to say that the service allows you to “get back to living life on your own terms”, which means a whole lotta nothing, considering that if you’re single that’s presumably exactly what you have been doing.
Invisible Boyfriend – how does it work?
But, anyway, enough of my sniping. What exactly does the ‘service’ entail? Well, for the rock-bottom price of $24.99 per month, you will receive 100 text messages, 10 voicemails and one personalised note – and if you just want the texts (really, who leaves voicemails?) it will cost you a mere $14.99 per month.
As well as the texting, the service provides you with a selfie of your significant other (fancy being someone’s Invisible Boyfriend or Girlfriend? You can submit a photo here), as well as a back story about how you met, with the website even offering you some help in crafting your story. It even lets you create their personality.
You then text away, with the responses coming from real people, not a bot, according to the service. Though it doesn’t give you any pointers on how to explain the fact no one in your life ever gets to meet your SO – that’s up to you.
The service provides you with text messages from your invisible significant other. Image via InvisibleBoyfriend.com
According to the website, the aim of the service is to stop your parents, co-workers or friends hassling you to date people if you don’t want to and allows you to escape the stigma (?!) of being single.
While this idea, which obviously originates in the US, sounds like TOTAL MADNESS to me, it actually won the St Louis Startup Weekend when it was in it, and has received a Twitter endorsement from tech heavyweight Eileen Burbidge.
hadn't heard of @myinvisiblegf @myinvisiblebf before but I totally get the proposition and am convinced will be big https://t.co/RqBDuT7lZZ
— Eileen Burbidge (@eileentso) July 9, 2015
The service is available in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and a number of other countries, but it doesn’t look like it’s in Ireland – YET. But, let’s not kid ourselves, Ireland is way too small for this service to work – you’d probably end up bumping into your Invisible Boyfriend down the pub.
Seriously, though, just download Tinder – at least then there’s some chance there that the person texting you might be real.
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Woman texting image via Shutterstock
