COVID-19 has infected more than 300,000 people around the world, and killed more than 14,000 people, according to the data from the World Health Organization.
With the disease spreading to more places and declared a pandemic, many countries are urging their citizens to stay at home and maintain social distancing.
People are only allowed to go outside of their "confined comfort" they call home, only to buy groceries or doing something extremely important.
But the word 'important' to some people apparently, include hanging out to meet people.
To curb the spread of the disease, many bars, cafés and restaurants are closed, leaving many people who wish to hang out, having less to no place to go.
In these uncertain and stressful times, connecting with other people remains incredibly important. With millions of people around the globe being ordered to stay indoors as much as possible, people have had to get creative with their approach to socializing.
Considering how contagious COVID-19 really is, people started to shift their hang out moments to cyberspace using group video apps.
Some group video apps that have remained relatively stagnant for years at a time, are experiencing surges. In case of Houseparty app, it experienced an increase to even tenfold, according to Apptopia, an analytic firm that provides app publishers and developers access to app intelligence worldwide.
Others such as Zoom, which is used mainly for remote working, has been downloaded by more than 600,000 people in a single day.
FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Slack, Rave and others have also seen upticks.
In the way how governments force their citizens to stay at home and work from home, more people started to eat, drink, and get drunk in front of their colleagues and friends online, right in front of their computers/tablet/smartphone at home.
To some others, quarantine and isolation translate to boredom and sometimes issues to their mental health.
Having less physical connection to their loved ones, can cause problems to some people, especially in this anxious times caused by COVID-19. And for extroverted people, self-isolation can be difficult as it can cause anxiety and depression.
With the internet, things can go easier for them.
When usually people hang out with each other on occasions, the moments have shifted to the internet.
Group video apps can have unique features, like offering quizzes, trivia, drawing and wordplay. Group chats themselves are also facilitating the use of Google Docs and spreadsheets on a whole new scale.
For those people, apps like these allow them to continue their activities like usual, but on their devices. With the apps, they can combat loneliness, stay connected and engaged during this very strange time.
The surge in video group chats has also presented many people the opportunity to make new friends.
