dating

They say you can never change a man. 'They' know nothing.

 

Flowers, surprise gifts, romantic getaways….

Instead of a flurry of butterflies, should you be hearing alarm bells?

With the likes of betterboyfriend.me things might not be as they seem.

Better Boyfriend is a subscription-driven app that helps boyfriends act like better boyfriends. It’s the brainchild of Harvard graduate Dan Sullivan, and by ‘help’ I mean the app completely absolves your boyfriend of any romantic responsibility. Click, pay, forget and girlfriend gets a gift.

Who said a man can never change? Who said romance was dead?

For $70 per month, this app takes the reigns in making you feel special on birthdays and anniversaries. It’s also behind those oh-so-sweet random surprises.

The subscriber perfect boyfriend will receive a choice of seven possible gifts every month that have been carefully selected by an algorithm really thoughtful app guys.

After an appropriately lengthy time of lovestruck soul-searching, he will press a button and choose the best gift for you.

Better Boyfriend will then deliver the package to your boyfriend (completely unbranded, of course), who will then pass the gesture onto your unsuspecting self. There are also in-built reminders for special events that are approaching.

It most likely goes something like this:

Your reality:

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His reality:

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So, this begs the question.

Are subscription-based flowers better than no flowers?

Or,

Is there a case for automating your love life?

Sullivan told The Guardian around 50% of women knew about their boyfriend’s subscription.

“It’s correlated with age. I think after you’ve been married a while you don’t keep many secrets,” Sullivan explained.

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But how would you react if you found out? Is there a reason to feel disappointed? Are there better ways to spend $70 a month? Could you find a different (perhaps more mutually active) way to maintain the spark?

What’s the biggest lie you’ve told your partner? Post continues below. 

Or, is the act of subscribing enough to keep you sweet? Is the foresight, commitment (laziness?) involved in subscribing to an app enough of a gesture in itself?

(Remember, the personal touch is not all lost – he does have to choose between seven gift possibilities after all!)

BetterBoyfriend.me is not the only app available to keep guys in the good books. BroApp is an automated messaging application, designed to keep your boyfriend in touch with you while he is out with the ‘bros’.

Upon signing up, your boyfriend writes a list of plausible text messages that can be sent intermittently to you. These perfectly timed gems keep your phone buzzing while he’s out with friends, no phone in sight.

Unless the ‘reply’ mechanism is super intelligent, I can’t say I’m sold on the quality of BroApp conversation.

To help guide you in this world where everything is automated and nothing is sacred, we suggest tuning into your gut feeling and going with it, which might look something like this:

The moment you discover those chocolates are app-automated:

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