Getting to Know You Apps: What to Look For

Most getting-to-know-you apps stall in the same place: the questions come in random order. A light question is followed immediately by a personal one and the table goes defensive.

That alone ends the game. Once a group meets a deep question before it has warmed up, there is no way back — even the lighter questions afterwards stop being answered as freely.

The second common failure is volume. A list of twenty questions is exhausted in the second round, and the app gets opened once and abandoned.

This is the criterion people most often overlook. In a game where everyone plays from their own phone, the people at the table are looking at screens rather than at each other — the game does precisely what it exists to prevent.

In the single-screen model the phone sits in the middle, the current player reads the card, and everyone else's hands are free. That is how a physical deck already works.

The difference comes down to portability and refreshing content. A deck sits more naturally on a table; its content is fixed, and after a year every card is known.

An app's advantage is that the content does not run out and it is already with you. On an unplanned evening the card deck is at home; the phone is not.

A good app is not one pool of questions but sets divided by setting. The same question does not do the same job on a first date and in a friend group of ten years.

Beni Tanı is a mobile app of question cards and conversation starters. The questions are not one pool but grouped into card sets: first date, friend group, couples and party games are separate.

Within a set the questions run in level order, so nothing deep opens before the group is warm. Content ratings are marked: sets unsuitable for mixed groups carry an age warning, and their contents are not published on the site.

Use is built around one screen — the phone sits on the table and the current player reads the card. Sets are rented from inside the app. It is available on Google Play.