As students hide their phones under their desks, many shoot balls across pool tables and match words as fast as they can. After GamePigeon was first launched on Sept. 13, 2016, it did not take long for it to become popular amongst iPhone users. 

GamePigeon was ranked #1 in the Top Free Category in the iMessage app store for the first six months of its release, with an initial rating of 3.9 stars out of 5 stars. In an Instagram poll taken on Nov. 15 asking if students played GamePigeon, 25 out of 29 people answered yes. 

As long as students have their phone with them, they can play GamePigeon anywhere at any time, which is a key reason why it is so popular with students. Games like 8 Ball and Sea Battle and Darts are some of the games that students are playing. 

“I always play GamePigeon at the lunch table with my friends or on the bus ride home from school,” sophomore Josh Wieder said. “It is really easy [to play] because we are able to just send the game back and forth, and it is fun to play games with friends.” 

Making friends or bonding with people can be hard for students, coming off a year in which everything is online and little to no interaction.

“I think GamePigeon affects friendships in a positive way,” junior Andrew Hofinger said. “It can be a good bonding experience for people who are already friends, or it can be a way for people who are not very close to become better friends because GamePigeon can help people bond from their phones.” 

In an Instagram poll conducted on Nov. 19, 14 out of 30 students reported that 8 Ball was their most played game, while eight reported Crazy 8’s out of the 23 available games on the platform.

“My favorite game on GamePigeon is definitely 8 Ball, [but] if I’m with a group of friends, Crazy 8’s is the way to go,” Hofinger said. “Both games are fun because they do not take long to complete.”

To play GamePigeon, all students need to do is send a text message to another person’s phone number and they can start playing after they have downloaded the app. It does not cost money or require any extra tasks to play. It can be played anywhere at any time as long as students have their phones. 

“If I am sitting at lunch with my friends or sitting at my desk after a test with nothing to do, I can just send a game [of] Mancala or 8 Ball to my friends,” freshman Prisha Phutela said. “GamePigeon is really such a fun way to interact with my friends when I’m not with them.”