When work or family needs put significant distance between you and your partner for extended periods, it can put serious strain your relationship. Luckily, staying connected -- regardless of where you are in the world -- isn't nearly as difficult as it used to be.
A hundred years ago you had to settle for mailing love letters to your sweetie. Later, phones helped bridge vast distances. Today, there's an almost limitless number of ways to connect with your partner. As long as you've got a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, as well as an internet connection, you can make those weeks or months apart fly by. Here's how.
Regularly Scheduled Virtual Dates
When you're apart and dealing with separate (often conflicting) schedules, it can feel like you aren't a priority to your partner. Nix that feeling by regularly scheduling a date night once or twice a week. Order in delivery, hop on Skype, a Google Hangout, or Facetime, and chat face to face over your meal. Alternatively, you can both watch a movie together. Use Chromecast or Apple TV to get a movie or your favorite TV show on the big(ger) screen, and then instant message one another to coordinate starting the movie at the same time. Then you can share reactions as the show is playing (“OMG can you believe what Pensatucky just did??”).
The key part about this "date" is that it's as important as any other meeting or event that week -- it doesn't get cancelled, and it doesn't get rescheduled. If you start shifting it around, that whole feeling of being a priority in your loved one’s life starts to get diminished, and bad feelings ensue.
Granted, if you're in vastly different time zones, this kind of virtual date may just not be feasible. But you still have options. You can greet your significant other with a message during their actually waking hours with an app like Text Later (Android) or FutureText (iOS). Write a text, schedule it to send whenever you want (also useful for remembering big dates like anniversaries). And if you guys are international, you may want to switch to a messaging app like WhatsApp or Kik to beat international fees.
Don't Just Text
Texting, Gchatting, or instant messaging are easy ways to instantaneously connect with your partner. But when communicating purely over text, it's also easy to misunderstand tone or intent. Why did you end that text with a period? Are you mad at me? What do those emoji mean?!
To combat this, hop on the phone or fire up video chat -- even (especially) if you're mad or you think your partner's mad. It's nearly always easier to calm nerves and settle issues with your voice and face rather than just tapping onto a cold, unfeeling display.
Share Your Experiences
Another problem with being apart for long periods of time is that you start to feel disconnected. Maybe you don't know the new people your partner is hanging out with, or perhaps you just miss getting the chance to meet up with your old friends back home.
Regularly sharing photos and videos are a great way to give your significant other at least a taste of what your daily life is like. Snapchat is probably the ideal tool for this, whether you want to share a look of frustration during your morning commute, or (as Snapchat's known for) something a bit naughtier. If you're not down with Snapchat -- especially after that recent data breach -- there are several other self-destructing message alternatives.
Capture your coworker's adventures with a treadmill desk (for example) on Vine for six-second loops of hilarity. And for longer, less loopable fodder, like that trip to the karaoke lounge, Instagram videos are a good option. You can also privately share a photo or video using Instagram's new Direct feature, which lets you selectively share Instagram moments to those you follow. All of these are also good options if you and your partner are in different time zones, and have difficulty scheduling video chats together.
An App for Two
There's pretty much an app for everything in the App and Google Play Stores, including ones specifically geared for couples. You and your partner may enjoy sharing moments in one like Couple (formerly called Pair).
The app houses a number of features, including a calendar for planning dates, shared to-do lists, and a shared drawing canvas. But it's the "thumbkiss" feature that sets Couple apart from anything else out there. Open the app, press your thumb against the screen, and wait for your partner to get notified and do the same. When you're both pressing the same spot onscreen, your thumbprint turns red and your phone vibrates. It's a nice approximation of an actual physical connection, even though it's just through your phone.
Avocado is a similar couples-only app. It offers shared lists, a shared calendar, a simultaneous sketching feature, a private photo book, and the ability to "send" hugs and kisses.
The iOS app Romantimatic is what I'd consider more of a last resort if you really have trouble remembering to text your sweetie or squeeze them into your day. You can set yourself reminders to contact them and send a little "I'm thinking of you" message -- probably best not to tell them those thoughts were spurred on by an app alarm, though.
