Ghostbot Review – ‘Cause you know ghosting is a thing

Ghostbot App Review

We’ve all had that “disaster date” experience: you meet up with a guy or girl, spend a few hours together, and realize you never want to see them again. Ever. And they don’t ever get the message. You could waste hours of your life politely turning him down and trying to hint that “this isn’t working,” but that’s really draining. Besides – you only have one life to live. Why waste time texting someone you don’t ever want to talk to again?

Ghostbot: Taking duds off your hands

That’s where Ghostbot comes in. Ghostbot automatically responds to your not-boyfriend’s texts so you don’t have to, politely declining down dates (and sometimes leaving messages for hours without a response). By downloading Ghostbot, you free up time from worrying about sending mixed messages to living your best life – and letting your failed date get on with theirs, too.

How Ghostbot Works

Step One: Get the Burner App and use it for dates

Ghostbot functions alongside Burner, the app that gives you a temporary, disposable phone number to use on Tinder dates, iffy first dates, and other awkward situations. Burner allows you to create a phone number for any situation, keep it as long as you like, and destroy it when you’re done. With Burner, any texts or calls made to your Burner number are forwarded to your phone, so you don’t miss a message.

However, if you give your Burner number to a Tinder date and they won’t stop texting you afterwards, you’ll get every single message. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Step Two: Add Ghostbot

If you’re using Burner, and you’re getting unwanted messages from a failed date, Ghostbot is the app for you.

To add it to Burner, just go to the Ghostbot webpage and enter your phone number according to the website instructions.

Ghostbot will pull up the phone numbers and contacts you’re currently texting in Burner, and you can choose who to block and who to keep talking with the flip of a switch.

Ghostbot works directly inside Burner, taking over the notifications and responding for you. The app is programmed with a variety of responses, from “Life is busy atm” to “Completely snowed under at work” to “Maybe in a week or two” to “See you never” (depending on the pushiness of the texts). Ghostbot makes sure to vary response times for realism, and is emoji-equipped as well.

Strict Cutoffs

If the conversation continues for too long, Ghostbot will stop talking with your not so knight in shining armor completely so they realize it’s time to leave you alone. The app also auto-detects abusive or threatening language, and will halt communication with and block anyone whose behavior becomes inappropriate.

Auto-Filtering of Aggressive / Inappropriate Texts

In fact, that’s one large reason Ghostbot was created: aggressive and inappropriate texts from failed first dates. When trying to ghost someone, many women experience increasingly assertive and harassing texts from their rejected partner. These can become emotionally disturbing and even dangerous if encouraged. By handling the gentle let-down, and blocking anyone with harmful tendencies immediately, Ghostbot helps protect women while freeing up their dating life.

Even better, you can easily switch on Ghostbot for specific contacts and switch it off whenever you like. Want a break from talking to John? Switch on Ghostbot. Have a change of heart? Switch off Ghostbot. Want to talk to Steve, but not Chris? Switch on Ghostbot for Chris, but leave Steve out of it. The app makes it easy to coordinate who you talk with and who you ignore.

Multiple categories of responses: they’ll never guess it’s a bot

Rather than simply randomizing a few set responses (“Sorry I’m busy” gets old), Ghostbot was created with multiple categories of responses. It knows when a text asking about getting together for a second date comes in, versus a compliment, versus an insult – it even recognizes a threat.

The builders of the app worked with a screenwriter and studied several real-life cases of women ghosting men to understand possible scenarios and come up with realistic dialogue. Eventually, if someone is being overly-pushy or aggressive, Ghostbot can block them as a last resort. So when you turn Ghostbot on, you don’t have to worry about an app that sends three or four preprogrammed responses over and over; Ghostbot’s dozens of responses will keep your texter busy for a while.

It even has texts like “Confused, sorry” and “Oops! Meant to send that to someone else” among others, for situations the app doesn’t entirely understand. Rather than sending a mismatched text, Ghostbot will mimic human clumsiness so the appearance of texting a person is never broken. The bot will even wait up to 3 hours, then respond “Sorry, battery died” to deflect from a topic of conversation.

No notifications, no buzzing, no problems

When you use Ghostbot to turn down a date, you stop getting buzzed every time they text you. This is especially helpful if you also use your phone for work, if you keep your phone on vibrate all day on in case a family member needs you, or if you’re just enjoying your life and don’t want to be checking your phone constantly. Ghostbot coordinates responses without any need for involvement from you beyond the “on” switch.

If you’re planning to ghost someone, it’s the way to go

Ghostbot is a genius app for people who are tired of trying to shake potential boyfriends, who have already dropped plenty of clues, and already plan to ghost a date anyway. Rather than outright telling a guy “I didn’t like our date, please stop texting me” and sounding like a not-so-nice person, hurting feelings, and causing unneeded drama, you can let Ghostbot handle the hints and clues that it’s not going to work. And it’s a much better solution than just ignoring someone; more often than not, that ends in panicked texts and increased tension rather than a quiet fade-out.

One major complaint users have had about Ghostbot is that it doesn’t work for more straightforward people who prefer to just tell dates to stop texting. But…isn’t that the point? If ghosting’s not your thing, then Ghostbot’s not for you.

But they don’t know it’s a bot, is that okay?

Some people are hesitant to use Ghostbot because it seems deceitful. After all, you’d want to know if you were texting a robot and not a person, right?

This is a legitimate question. Ghostbot impersonates your date and leads you to believe that you’re in touch with them, when actually, they might not even read your messages. There’s no notification to your date that you’ve turned them over to an app; that’d defeat the purpose. While some Ghostbot responses hint at the artificial-intelligence side (e.g., “You know I’m not even reading these anymore, right?”) it’s not said outright.

Whether or not the concept of Ghostbot bothers you depends on your personal feelings about white lies and how pushy your date is. Sometimes, dates can be assertive to the point of violating your personal comfort – even after you ask them to stop texting or tell them you’re not interested in getting together. Some might even send you unwanted pictures, or harass you while you’re working. Those types of people don’t deserve your mental attention and emotional energy, so if you don’t want to block them, Ghostbot is a great way to take their texts off your mind.

Not intended for boyfriends and breakups

Artificial intelligence is still evolving. Even though Ghostbot is incredibly advanced in its responses, it can only really handle on-the-surface conversations.

It’s not built to help your ex-boyfriend navigate the “whys” of a complex breakup, or even turn down someone you’ve been on multiple dates with. In both those situations, the person you’re ghosting will immediately recognize the change in your texting style, anyway. Ghostbot was created for texting people who don’t know you too well yet, who won’t talk about deep or complex questions over text and won’t notice a slight change in your texting style.

And it sometimes shows its bot side – responses aren’t always seamlessly matched to the conversation. You might still offend the other person if they realize you either aren’t paying attention or added an app to talk to them for you. However, the point isn’t to avoid offending someone; it’s to stop worrying about their invasive text messages so you can continue your life. If you don’t mind ruffling the feathers of your one-night-stand-overly-interested Tinder date, Ghostbot is the way to turn them down without hassle.

Final thoughts: Ghosting made easy, if you don’t mind the bot

As long as you’re ghosting someone you just met, Ghostbot is the app for you. Its responses don’t generally sound bot-like thanks to the countless hours of work put in by creators to script lifelike dialogue for any situation. And if you’re afraid a conversation might turn nasty, it’s a way to ignore the conversation and continue with your life. It may give away its bot-ness sooner or later, but if the person texting you is already rude and invasive, that shouldn’t be a worry; they pretty much asked for it, after all.