Messages from home, at the edge of your game.
She sends from her phone. It appears in the corner of your game, you answer with one key, and nobody has to shout up the stairs.
For Windows, with apps for iPhone and Android. Free for one PC and 3 people.
A concept: both buttons open working web versions of the apps.
A VALORANT match with a message from Sarah in its top-right corner. Beside it, her phone shows the people she’s on comms with, and that Jake is in a match with about 15 minutes left.
- VALORANT
- Counter-Strike 2
- Overwatch 2
- Fortnite
- League of Legends
Three steps. None of them is alt-tab.
- 1SarahLonely
dinner’s ready, come eat with me
She sends from her phone
A message, a mood, or one of her quick ones. She can see you’re mid-match and roughly how long is left.
- 2Sarahnow
dinner’s ready, come eat with me
She can see: in a match, about 12 min left
F7On my wayF8After this matchF9Love youIt lands in your corner
Small, in the corner you choose, between rounds if you like. Your clicks pass straight through it.
- 3F8After this matchSent to Sarah · After this match
You answer with one key
F7, F8 or F9, your own words on each. The reply is on her phone before you’ve peeked the next angle.
Her side is one screen.
No feed, no setup, no gaming knowledge. She taps his link, signs in with Apple or Google, and she’s on his comms.
- Knows when to wait. She sees he’s mid-match and about how long is left, so “five minutes” means something.
- Respects heads down. When he’s in ranked, messages wait. Urgent still gets through, three times a day.
- Hears back. His one-key reply lands as a notification. Not gaming? It goes to his phone.
Say how you feel, not just what you want.
Six hand-drawn moods she can add to any message. Always her choice; never guessed from what she wrote.
- Lonely
- Hungry
- Bored
- Proud of you
- Come here
- Missing you
Built to cost you nothing.
Comms never touches your game. It’s a separate, click-through window that stays hidden until someone writes, so for most of your match it isn’t drawn at all.
- Nothing injected. No hooks, no DLLs, nothing inside the game for anti-cheat to see.
- Drawn once. The note is painted once and Windows animates it; Comms does no work per frame.
- Asleep by default. A tiny native process, low priority, no browser engine. The settings window only runs when you open it.
- Hooks into your game
- 0
- CPU while idle
- <0.5%
- Memory
- <40MB
- GPU work when quiet
- 0
These are the budgets Comms is designed to, and how it would be tested: frame times with it on and off. It’s a concept, so they’re targets, not results.
A channel for two, not a social network.
Only your people
No feed, no followers, no profiles to find. Someone joins only with your link, and only after you approve them.
You choose what they see
Whether you’re gaming, which game, the score. Per person. Mum can see you’re busy without seeing you’re losing.
Nothing about your match is kept
Messages last 30 days. Game state is read, shown and dropped. Sign-in is through your browser, so Comms never sees a password.
Free for most homes. One payment for the rest.
No subscription. Messages are tiny, so Comms costs almost nothing to run, and it shouldn’t cost you monthly either.
Free
$0
Everything most households need.
- One PC, 3 people
- Moods, quick messages and urgent
- Three reply keys, your words
- Heads down and per-person rules
- One payment, for good
Comms+
US$6.99once
For the whole house, and the details.
- As many people as you like
- Custom sounds and overlay styles
- Different keys and corners per game
- Every future feature in Comms+
Gift it
US$6.99once
The one who wants to reach him usually buys it.
- Buy it from her phone app
- It turns on the next time he opens Comms
- Apple Pay or Google Pay
Questions, answered.
Will this get me banned?
Comms doesn’t inject into, hook or read the memory of any game. It’s an ordinary window that sits on top, the way Windows’ own notifications do. That’s the approach least likely to trouble anti-cheat like Vanguard, and before launch it would be cleared with each game’s publisher.
Does it work in fullscreen?
In borderless or windowed fullscreen, yes, and that’s how most games run now. A few games in true exclusive fullscreen won’t let any window draw over them; there Comms plays a short sound and sends the message to your phone instead.
Will it drop my frames?
It’s designed not to. Nothing is drawn while there’s no message, and when there is one it’s painted once and composited by Windows. The performance section above has the budgets.
What does she see about me?
Only what you choose, per person: that you’re gaming, which game, and the score and rough time left. You can hide any of it, or go heads down so only urgent messages get through.
Does she need a gaming PC, or an account?
No PC at all. She installs the phone app from your link and signs in with Apple, Google or her email. No password.
Can my mum use it too?
Yes. Free includes 3 people, each with their own rules: Mum can be daytime only, and never urgent.
Is it really one payment?
Yes. Comms+ is US$6.99 once, for good. There’s no subscription and nothing is held back to make you upgrade.