Social discovery platform Yubo has launched a gaming feature in a bid to bring new levels of interactivity to its teenage users, as social distancing measures remain in place worldwide. To Be Honest, Would You Rather, Draw Quiz and Let Them Guess, are among the first in a series of free games to be launched as part of the new package, and were created in collaboration with Yubo’s global community of Gen Z users.

In recent months, Yubo has experienced a significant rise in user conversations, with a 300 per cent increase in the number of people taking part in live streams and a 310 per cent increase in the length of live streams. There has been a 275 per cent rise in daily unique sign-ups since January. The Yubo team has been working to respond to this surge in activity, to bring new features to new and existing users so that they are able to socialise in a variety of ways during the ongoing pandemic.

To Be Honest is a game of truth that can be played amongst new and old friends through live-streams. A streamer is selected at random and has 30 seconds to answer the question about themselves that appears on-screen, for example: ‘Who would you take with you if you were stranded on a desert island?’ Fellow gamers can vote for their favourite answers, to reveal whose inner-truths are most popular.

Would You Rather enables Yubo users to discover new friends with similar interests. Gamers answer 20 questions, where they must choose their preferred option from two possible responses. At the end of the game, players are able to view which users had the most answers in common with them!

Draw Quiz is a twist on Pictionary. Users must attempt to identify words based on pictures drawn by other players. The user who has successfully drawn the most words at the end of the game wins.

Let Them Guess is a new take on the popular US game, Heads Up!, where users have one minute each to get creative in describing the words that appear on their screens, without mentioning the word itself.

Yubo collaborated with its community of 30m global users in the development of the gaming feature. Just last month, Yubo released a poll on the platform, asking users which games they’d most like to play on the app, and results found that Pictionary was one of the most popular games. Yubo has also implemented buttons within the app to allow users to suggest content, such as questions or words, that they’d like incorporated across all four games, in order to keep content fresh and relevant for their users.

“This has been a community-based process from start to finish, as we always ensure that our users have their say,” said Yubo co-founder and CEO, Sacha Lazimi. “The main aim of this latest launch is to bring fun and positivity to our teenage community, helping them to stay connected with one another during this heightened period of online activity, when unfortunately, it’s not possible for them to connect in person.”