If you have just started living apart and you are looking at a list of thirty recommended apps, this page is the shorter version. You need three things on your phone, not thirty, and they do different jobs.
The three-app setup
1. One shared world — the background thread
Something that exists whether or not either of you is online, so there is always a small piece of contact available. Our Flower Garden is the pick here because the garden is genuinely shared rather than two separate ones, and there are no timers to fall behind on.
If you want more systems to play with, Hay Day does the same job with a farm each and a trading layer between you.
2. One turn-based game — for mismatched hours
A game that waits. Words With Friends 2 for something light with a chat attached, Chess.com if you both want to get better at something. A single match can run for a week and neither of you has to be available.
3. One thing for call nights
Something you play live, together, while talking. The best of these are the two-player puzzles — The Past Within or Tick Tock: A Tale for Two — because each of you sees different information, which makes the call the game rather than background noise.
You can also do this with no app at all. A question list fills a call perfectly and costs nothing.
What not to install
- Anything with a daily streak. Across time zones somebody will break it, and then it is a thing to feel bad about.
- Anything with a competitive ladder. Progress gaps open fast when one of you has more free time, and in a long distance relationship you have fewer chances to laugh it off in person.
- A fourth game. Three is already more than most couples maintain.
Setting them up once, properly
Do all the installing and friend-adding in one sitting, at a time when you are not trying to play. Sign in with real accounts on both phones rather than as a guest — that single thing causes most “we cannot find each other” problems. Then you never have to do setup on an evening you wanted to spend together.
The longer list is in best games for long distance couples, and the call-night logistics are in how to run a long distance game night.
