It’s not hard to find new (or old) friends online – they’re literally everywhere. This concept isn’t new either – in fact I’ve even reviewed an App like this previously (Distant Shore). But what Pen Pals lacks in originality, it makes up for in functionality and novelty.

See the end of this post to win this App for Free!

Pen Pals is exactly what it sounds like – write out a message (include a picture or audio recording if you like) and fire it off into the world, who knows where it will end up or who you will meet. It’s like Omegle or Chatroutlette for the iPhone (only, hopefully with significantly less genitalia).

I think we can all agree that some of the mystery and fun of the early days of the internet was that you could have whole conversations with strangers. Chat rooms and Instant Messengers were full of unknown persons just waiting to be interacted with. This is what Pen Pals brings back from the dead, and into the palm of your hand. Whoa, that sounded a little too much like a marketing tagline. But it’s true.

I’m going to compare this App to Twitter for a second, I hope you follow. I think that most people can agree that half the fun of sending out little messages to the world about where you are, what you’re eating, or what you’re thinking is thinking that maybe there’s someone out there who cares, or finds that interesting. I think that having this App has made me think that is more true. If I see something funny, or drink something smelly, I can just send out a little message to No One In Particular, and hope for a reply – or better yet, maybe I’ll get a “These Fries are Awesome” message in my own Inbox. That’s a little bit delightful to me.

Obviously this App isn’t for everyone. As I’m a little bit socially inept in my real life, I find this digital interaction quite appealing, but maybe that’s just me.

And now, about the App itself. This thing is beautiful. One of the things I like to point out is the difference between paid Apps and Free Apps, and this is a paid App for a reason. They layout is brilliant, the graphics are colourful and clean, and the entire thing runs smoothly. See the Demo Vid & Screenshots:

The setup is quick, just add your own username and decide to share your location or not. Then fire off a message. They say the more messages you send, the more you’ll receive. I assume this is dependent on the number of users on the App at any given time, because I sent out 3 messages in the spam of 8 hours and didn’t receive a single reply, or random message for an additional 8. When I did hear from people though, I got messages from all over the globe – as you can see from the last screenshot above.

Another great reason that this is a paid App is that it weeds out the spammers. Only people really interested in having actual other Pen Pals will spend the $1.99. For more information on the Developers, or the App, find it on iTunes or The Dos Hombres website. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these guys chug out a few more pristine Apps in the future, they’ve got skillz.

Overall I think this is a quality fun App, I think the developers put a lot of time and thought into it and it’s really worth the two bucks – so if what I’ve described sounds appealing, I definitely recommend you try it out. And who knows, maybe you’ll become one of my Pen Pals!

Or you could just Comment Here, or tweet me about this article, and you can win one of two Promo Codes I have to give away – it’s that easy! Contest Open until the codes are gone!