6 ways to practically stay in touch with long-distance friends

It’s hard to stay in touch with close friends and family who live hundreds of miles away, especially when you have a busy schedule. While I try to check in often, I’ve found some great ways to keep in touch with friends and family long distance, from sending mini podcasts to starting a virtual book club.

1 Photo sharing

Sharing photos is one of the best ways to stay in touch with friends and family from afar. Since they aren’t here to experience every moment of my life, I like to post pictures of new decor I’ve put up, places I’ve visited, cute pictures of pets, and more.

My current photo sharing app is Locket, which works similar to Snapchat. However, its widget feature for your home screen that shows new photos as they come in is one of the reasons I left Snapchat for Locket.

I’m in a group with two of my best friends, which allows us to share photos with short captions. There is also the option to respond to photos and send messages in the application, where I can directly respond to photos.

2 Sending voice memos

Sometimes the story I’m excited to share is too long to write as text. My friends and I often send longer voice notes to update each other on key parts of our day, exciting job opportunities, or the latest celebrity gossip. It’s a great excuse to hear my friends’ voices and have a deeper conversation than just texting.

Designed specifically for this purpose, the Cappuccino app is available for iOS and Android. Cappuccino allows you to create mini podcasts with life updates and other information that you can then send to your friends. Each short “bean” (audio clip) you send will be added to your friends’ cappuccinos, which are compiled and sent daily. While this is a great option, sending a voice note on iMessage will also do the job.

3 Watching shows and movies

Teleparties allow you to organize a party with friends and family. I love watching reality TV with my friends because it’s more fun as a group, so I have nights where I watch the latest episodes of The Bachelor franchise. You can link your accounts for Netflix, Max, YouTube, Hulu and more!

Teleparty has a chat bar where you can message your friends while watching the live stream, with additional options to pause and rewind for snack breaks or other interruptions. You can download Teleparty as an extension to your browser or download the app for iOS and Android.

4 Running a virtual book club

My friends and I also started a book club a year ago with the help of the Fable app. This amazing reading tracker also allows you to set up public and private book clubs and divide books for discussion by chapter. We usually give ourselves around three weeks to complete a book and add comments to the app as we progress.

There is a final review section that shows how each club member rated the book (out of five stars) and their final review. We’ll also schedule a video call to go over our thoughts on the book, largely based on the commentary we each wrote on Fable. Fable is also a fantastic book tracker, which is why I ditched Goodreads and now track my books on my Fable.

5 Audio and video call settings

While it may seem like the most obvious option, phoning long-distance friends and family always gives me an instant boost. It can be challenging to get a time when everyone is available to chat, but even just a quick phone call makes all the difference.

I try to video call long distance friends at least twice a month and call my family once a week. I especially love video chatting with FaceTime so I can see my loved ones, their pets, and any other visual components like new furniture, art projects, and so much more.

6 Playing games online

Finally, I recently discovered Plato, an app that allows you to play games and message people in-game. Plato currently offers more than 50 multiplayer games in the app, including pool, chess, drawing, word games, and even an RPG called Dungeon Tales.

No matter what games you, your friends and family enjoy, there’s something for everyone at Plato. The app is available for free on iOS and Android, with in-app purchases for coins that can be exchanged for various aesthetic options, such as changing the card design.

There are more ways to stay in touch with long-distance family and friends than just a phone call. Whether you want to watch movies together, start a book club, play games, or share photos, you can maintain a strong connection even when you’re apart.