# IRL‎ > Social messaging app for connecting with friends, groups, and events. (iPhone/iPad app by Live Awake Inc.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/irl/id1332596741 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Live Awake Inc](https://appshunter.io/developer/1474418384) - Category: Lifestyle, Productivity - Price: Free - Rating: 4.07/5 from 22,985 App Store ratings · 50 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 12+ - Requires: iOS 15.0 · 150 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2018-02-08 - Data updated: 2026-06-10 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/irl/id1332596741/reviews.md ## What is IRL‎? IRL is the place for Social Messaging! Follow your friends, join groups you relate to, and chat! IRL super-charges your social life! IRL is one of the top Social Apps, and it’s accessible through all your devices. Friends - Follow all your friends on IRL! Chat with them and see the events they are interested in. Use it to discover what you might have missed and plan something to do! Groups - Create groups around your interests and discover people that have the same interests as you. Make new friends, or get closer with someone you know already. Groups can be public or private, you decide who joins. Events - Events you create and join get added to your IRL Calendar so you can manage your busy days. Create events and invite your groups, make it easy to plan for clubs and activities! Birthday parties on IRL are always more fun. Chat - Chat on groups and events, create polls, and send gifs! Chat with your clubs, friends, school groups, or family. Have a chat with 2, or be a part of a worldwide chat! Chat more together. Find out why Apple named us "Our Favorite" in Social and upgrade your life today ;) ## Key features - Follow friends - Join interest groups - Create and join events - Integrated social calendar - Group and event chat - Create polls and send GIFs ## What do users think of IRL‎? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 🚀 Organized social calendar - 👍 Ability to plan events with friends - 💡 Unique features like anonymous nominations **Cons** - 🔒 Privacy concerns with accessing contacts - 🐛 Glitches and bugs in the app - 🔍 Unclear how to use certain features **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes when trying to reveal nominations - Contacts being spammed with invites without permission **Most requested features** - More customization options for events - Improved group chat functionality - Ability to choose who to invite from contacts ## Recent user reviews (10 of 50) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/irl/id1332596741/reviews.md ### 3/5 — Concerned *2022-09-07, version 4.37.0* I saw an ad and downloaded it .. work perfectly and was insanely fun to use with my family and friends. Which is why I gave it 3 stars- Have not used it for a few days come back and it is completely changed …it’s now a group chat all you can do is pick a group to chat or follow where they disabled the comments. There is no option to create your memes with your words like before. I deleted it and reinstall same issue and I am not able to get back to those options, only the group feature I did not sign up to use group chats. Not sure if it’s a flaw but don’t like being tricked or lied to. ### 2/5 — Wants access to all my contacts. *2022-08-18, version 4.35.2* I’m sorry, but what you’re saying about giving only access to the contacts a choose is a lie. The only option to select is “contacts.” After reading all the comments about peoples contacts are being spammed with messages about your app and seeing that you can’t move on without selecting to give access to my contacts; was enough for me to say no! I’m sure the app is great and all, but I’m not ticking a bunch of people off just so you all can get more subscribers. Remove the option of having to give access to my contacts and I’ll consider trying again. ### 5/5 — Great app *2022-08-03, version 4.34.0* Don’t listen to the negative reviews. Just use the app on messages. I never use the app to communicate. I only use the meme feature on messages. So far, it’s been working great. No issues whatsoever. If you don’t want to have issues (again can’t confirm that there’s issues since I’ve never used the actual app to communicate with people) just use the iMessage feature that comes along with the app. Just be sure to create an account first. Other than the (not even a negative really) minuscule con that you have to create an account, I highly recommend this app for iMessage. ### 2/5 — Enter at your own discression ig *2022-06-21, version 4.30* Tried to make an account with my email and it said “Phone is not enabled for your country, please use…”. I can’t even click to read the rest, as far as I can see? Might wanna make that an option so people know what to do EDIT: Worked two days later, but the app is incredibly laggy and it takes forever to switch the page you’re on. Maybe it’s because I was in one of the bigger groups, but still annoying. The community is also. Something, for sure. The app also didn’t ask for permission to access my photos before i added a pfp as far as I can remember which is kinda sketching me out. Overall very strange experience, keeping my rating the same. Good luck to the devs ### 5/5 — My only groups app !!!! 💜💜💜😻😻⚡️⚡️⚡️ *2021-06-09, version 4.1.4* Im one of those people who are hard to get on a new app. Maybe it’s because I’m over the age of 25 and we watched the mania of app life integration from the begin, but... I do have to say I got sold on this one. I’ve been off of social media for over a year now feeling overwhelmed by everyone’s energetic shares about things that mainly didn’t really correlate to important in the NOW happenings. Once I cut off IG and FB I felt so much better energetically and emotionally - but I missed having a platform where I could genuinely engage with my friends. What I like about IRL is that it’s only focus is giving you a digital tool to actually make plans that matter IN REAL LIFE. I know every time I’m opening this app, I’m not just mindlessly scrolling through content. I’m actually doing something valuable for myself and friends! So yes, 4 stars for now. I can tell this app is generally built for a younger audience than mine, but sincerely hope this catches on for all age groups.💜💜💜🌈🌈🌈😻😻😻😻 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬 ### 5/5 — The app I was looking for *2021-04-18, version 4.0.5* I came across the IRL app and it is something I have been looking for and never knew existed - an app to integrate social events into my calendar and enjoy those events along with my close friends. I pulled in the schedule of my favorite sports teams into my calendar - now I have everything in one place. Probably a good app to use during the next fantasy football events. It is cool that the app promotes events 'in real life' - something so much necessary to bring people out of cocoons and interact. ### 5/5 — Very Clean Social App *2021-04-13, version 4.0.5* The focus of this app is utilizing your contacts and local events to actually become social again... Plan and attend events with your friends and people you have common interests with. And also stay in touch with them in group chats. As we come out of Covid I believe this will be awesome to check out what’s going on in your area and organize with your friends on who’s going where and when. Actually use social media to interact with each other in real life and not just be hooked on a platform in isolation. 👍🏼👍🏼 ### 5/5 — Social media for the active people! *2021-03-24, version 4.0.2* When we think about a social media app, we usually come up with the image of younge people and adults stuck on their phones for hours. IRL is different because it is a social media calendar app. IRL actually enourages people to plan, go out and meet together in real life. People can stay active instead of being addicted to the phone. You can sync the contacts from your contact list. It is very easy to use. You can also find events that are happening around the area. The calendar app also has a built in chat feature. I highly recommend this app! ### 5/5 — Best for College Students *2021-03-23, version 4.0.2* This is So fresh and so clean!. no more struggle trying to plan a gathering or meeting. I found easily chatting, and making plans from my calendar invites on the go. it is Seamlessly integrated so anyone can message friends however they like to communicate. A calendar app with a built in chat is really awesome. For the college students, This is really good, when I validate my .edu I had access to event discovery only for students where found and share the dopest events happening on or around my campus. Thank you ### 5/5 — Love how it organizes my groups! *2021-03-01, version 3.5.2* The IRL app is an amazing tool to organize all of your group’s communication and calendars. Using phone messaging has been problematic between iOS and droid users ( I noticed this especially between my droid husband and iOS me) getting messages dropped or out of order. This apps gets fir of that. It’s also great for when you want to compartmentalize groups without searching through a million messages. I have a book group, movie group and a sports group. I love how there are suggestions for activities in the area. The calendar is a key feature that sets this apart from other apps. Overall this is amazing for type As to organize group chats snd social calendars. ## Frequently asked questions about IRL‎ ### What does the IRL app do? IRL is a social messaging app designed to enhance your social life. It allows you to follow friends, join groups based on shared interests, and create or join events. You can chat with friends, groups, and at events, manage your social calendar, and discover new connections. ### What are the key features of IRL? Key features include the ability to follow friends and see their interests, create or join public and private groups, organize and manage events with an integrated calendar, and engage in chat conversations with polls and GIFs. ### Is IRL free to use? Yes, the application is free to use. There are no mentioned costs or subscription fees associated with its core functionality. ### What kind of events can I plan with IRL? You can plan a wide variety of events, from birthday parties to club activities and school group gatherings. The app's integrated calendar helps you manage your busy schedule and invite your friends or groups to your planned activities. ### Can I chat with people I don't know on IRL? Yes, you can chat with people you don't know through the groups feature. You can discover people with similar interests and make new friends, or get closer to people you already know. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 5.12.0 — 2023-06-15 Bug fixes and general improvements. ### 5.11.0 — 2023-06-01 Bug fixes and general improvements. ### 5.10.0 — 2023-05-25 Important bug fixes and improvements ### 5.9.1 — 2023-05-15 We released a cleaner and more streamlined navigation experience for our users. With this update, you will be able to discover communities around you more quickly and easily shift between chatting and exploring. ### 5.9.0 — 2023-05-05 We released a cleaner and more streamlined navigation experience for our users. With this update, you will be able to discover communities around you more quickly and easily shift between chatting and exploring. ## Apps similar to IRL‎ | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Laundry Matters](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/laundry-matters/id1489945300) | 5.0 (1) | Free | Lifestyle | | [SLM IoT](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/slm-iot/id1485034820) | — | Free | Lifestyle | | [Smarty Wedding Planner](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smarty-wedding-planner/id1481597360) | — | Free | Lifestyle | | [myACI Benefits](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/myaci-benefits/id1491055080) | 1.3 (27) | Free | Lifestyle | | [ボイラー　試験](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id1491583300) | — | $4.99 | Lifestyle | | [Beaches Laundry Service](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/beaches-laundry-service/id1489038780) | — | Free | Lifestyle | ## More apps by Live Awake Inc - [Memix - Make memes fast](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/memix-make-memes-fast/id6443475929) All apps by Live Awake Inc: https://appshunter.io/developer/1474418384 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*