Have you ever gotten a message saying "I miss you" and typed back "I miss you too!"... but it wasn't enough?
P.S. I Love You is a gentle way to stay close, even when life gets in the way. It's designed for people who, like me, struggle with keeping in touch—who overthink, wait too long to reply, or get caught up in life. While social media often feels hollow and unintentional, this app is about slowing down and showing up.
The app delivers structured, engaging prompts that gradually deepen friendships through consistent communication. These prompts combine shared experiences with reflective conversations, gradually progressing from simple activities to deeper, more meaningful interactions. A new prompt unlocks every three days, encouraging users to engage at a slower, more thoughtful pace.
This project was inspired by my own experience with long-distance relationships. Over the past few years, I've lived far away from people I really care about—friends from high school, my family... But most tools I use to stay in touch feel kind of hollow. Social media didn't feel intentional. So I wanted to make something different.
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My foundational research draws from two key areas: slow technology principles and self-disclosure theory.
Building on this, I incorporated principles of slow technology—emphasizing reflection, temporality, and resistance to efficiency. The app's three-day unlock system introduces mindful friction, encouraging users to slow down and approach each interaction with intention rather than optimizing for speed.
The psychological foundation comes from Arthur Aron's research on interpersonal closeness, which demonstrated that structured, escalating self-disclosure can create deeper emotional bonds. His studies showed that sustained, reciprocal disclosure led to stronger feelings of connection—participants rated new partners as closer than 30% of their closest friends.
This research informed the app's prompt structure, which progresses from light interactions to deeper, more personal questions over time. For a detailed exploration of this research and its application, read my full research paper.
My research revealed that people want deeper connections but struggle with consistency.
To understand how people maintain long-distance friendships, I conducted a survey exploring current communication patterns, meaningful interactions, and interest in app-based support. The research revealed that while participants use digital tools daily, they struggle with deeper conversations and face logistical barriers like busy schedules and time zones.
Most participants described interactions as lighthearted updates that maintain connection, but expressed desire for more meaningful conversations. The main challenges were logistical friction—busy schedules, time zones, and the energy required for long messages or calls. Many only reached out when they had something significant to share.
The Challenge of Distance
"Between busy schedules and time zone differences, I forget to check in."
"I do wish I communicated more with some of my long distance friends in Boston to keep in touch but I understand the life gets busy and its hard to keep in contact all the time."
The Need for Structure
"I don't always know what to talk about or feel I have anything worthy of sharing that warrants a call. Having a common topic to share or riff on would be interesting."
"These other apps (social media) lack the depth to really foster friendship"
Group Connection
"I could see my college friends setting up a group and building out this content to share with each other... being able to collaborate as a group is fun. Like how we used to hangout together, I think it's possible to bring to this app the same energy we had while hanging out in a group."
The App in Action.
Welcome
The app starts with a simple login and signup screen. Users can create an account using their email, which is securely stored in Firebase.
This authentication system ensures that each friendship journey is private and personal, while making it easy to return to your prompts whenever you want.
Start Your Journey
The onboarding experience introduces new users to the app's core values through three hand-drawn illustrations: Connect, Engage, and Reflect. These set the tone for meaningful digital friendship.
After a brief questionnaire, users can either invite a friend to join them or enter their friend's code to begin their journey together.
Unlock New Prompts
Drawing from slow technology research, the three-day unlock system creates intentional pauses between prompts. New users begin with the first prompt, and each new prompt unlocks after three days. When you log back in, you'll be taken directly to your current prompt, making it easy to continue your journey.
This pacing helps users build a consistent rhythm of communication while preventing overwhelming them with too many options.
Note: For testing and demonstration purposes, the unlock timer is set to 10 seconds instead of three days.
Grow Together
The prompt page shows your journey of friendship growth. Locked prompts create anticipation for future interactions, while unlocked ones represent shared moments and conversations.
Scroll through to see your progress and revisit past prompts that have helped deepen your connection.
P.S. I Love You creates structured intimacy through thoughtful prompts.
Research & Design Framework
The primary goal in designing the prompts was to bridge emotional distance in a way that feels meaningful, not superficial. The app's design employs a mixed-methods approach to explore how structured, interactive prompts can foster emotional closeness in long-distance friendships. This framework draws on Aron et al.'s (1997) experimental study, which demonstrated that sustained, reciprocal self-disclosure can increase feelings of interpersonal closeness, even among strangers.
Organization & Progression
The full collection will feature 40 prompts organized into four sets of ten, each progressively increasing in emotional intensity and effort. This pacing encourages gradual relationship-building rather than overwhelming users early on. Currently, the app features a carefully selected set of 12 prompts that demonstrate this progression, with the full collection to be released in future updates.
Prompts are designed to be engaged with off the app, giving users the freedom to choose their preferred form of communication (video call, text, audio note, etc.) depending on what feels most fitting for the moment and the specific prompt. Some prompts are more flexible, while others specify a particular mode of communication.
Categories & Interaction Types
In addition to emotional depth, prompts fall into four thematic categories: Play, Reflect, Dream, and Deep Dive. These categories were chosen to ensure emotional variety and balance across the experience, preventing users from feeling stuck in one type of interaction. They are interwoven throughout each set so that a variety of these tones appear at every stage of the progression, while the set determines the level of intimacy and effort.
Prompts are also described as synchronous, asynchronous, or flexible/hybrid. Some explicitly ask both users to complete the activity at the same time to foster real-time connection, while most are designed to give users the freedom to engage on their own schedules.
Visual Design
The front of each prompt card features a custom illustration, adding a sense of anticipation and delight. When users "flip" the card, they reveal the full activity — a playful yet meaningful invitation to connect.
Fun, lighthearted activities, often involving shared experiences
