Us

The problem

A couple's shared life tends to scatter — a group chat, two camera rolls, a date one of them meant to write down. There is no place that belongs to just the two of them, so staying close ends up happening by accident rather than on purpose.

The approach

Us is one shared space for a pair, and every feature answers the same question: what does each person see, and when. A daily question stays closed until both have answered. A wish can be kept, hinted at, or revealed. A challenge only moves forward once both people have had their moment. The privacy is structural rather than a setting — an answer is not hidden on the partner's screen before a reveal, it is not sent to their phone at all.

The build

• —Our Daily puts the same question to both partners. Neither answer reaches the other device until both have replied and one of them opens the reveal.
• —Five games — Truth or Dare, Guess My Answer, Who's More Likely, Would You Rather and Conversation Cards — cover a short wait or a long evening.
• —Truth or Dare runs at the lower of the two comfort settings, and the app never tells either partner whose setting decided it. Any prompt can be skipped and any mood switched off.
• —Secret Wishes hold the things that are hard to ask for. A wish stays private, goes out as a gentle hint that does not carry the wish behind it, or is revealed when the moment is right.
• —Shared challenges run across several days and advance only once both people have taken their turn, so neither partner is ever behind the other.
• —A shared timeline keeps photos, firsts and ordinary days, bringing older entries back when they come around again. Location data is stripped from photos before they are stored.
• —Notifications say that something happened, never what was said, and internal staff tools cannot display answers, wishes or memories.
• —Disconnecting removes both people's access to everything shared at the same moment and returns private wishes to their owner. Deleting an account clears its details immediately.

The outcome

The first version of Us is on Google Play, free to use. A marketing site introduces the app and collects early access sign-ups, ahead of a custom domain and the iOS release.