Covid 19 coronavirus: Houseparty 'loophole' for people to drink with mates

Houseparty has surged in popularity since millions of people are being forced to self-isolate. Image / Houseparty

Millions of people are finding themselves at home and lonely amid coronavirus isolation, but this could be the answer to your boredom woes.

Bored, lonely people bunkering down amid the coronavirus outbreak have found a loophole to get tipsy with their mates via the free app, Houseparty.

If you haven't heard of it you're well behind the curve. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall even has an account, according to the British tabloids.

The social network, which launched in 2016, is basically a cross between FaceTime and Snapchat, allowing you to connect with a bunch of your buddies in a visual chatroom, where you can catch up over a vino and play games within the app.

In June last year Houseparty was bought by Epic Games – the makers of Fortnite – for an undisclosed amount, but has surged in popularity since millions of people are being forced to self-isolate.

Here's how it works.

Our team has been doing this too! https://t.co/tQow1Fp2LG

You make an account and are able to see which friends from your phone contact list has also downloaded Houseparty.

Once you've added them to your contacts, it shows you who is "in the house" and you can start a chat with them. You can have chatrooms with up to eight people.

In a real nifty feature, you can also see when people from your list have started their own chat without you and – provided they haven't locked their chatroom – you can jump right on in and without warning your face emerges onto their screens and into their personal shindig.

What a time to be alive.

When you’re innocently scrolling through the houseparty app and someone starts a chat with you OUTTA NOWHERE pic.twitter.com/iwMHuoPdnB

— AD🥇🇳🇬🇨🇬 (@98Toks) March 24, 2020

Every time I jump into a new Houseparty: pic.twitter.com/sGBwxTxlh5

— Jo not Joe (@Josephine_N1) March 27, 2020

Once in there you have a handful of game choices: Trivia, Heads Up! Chips and Guac and Quick Draw.

Or you can just down a bottle of Chardy and talk about how you're all losing the plot in quarantine.

It is available on the App Store.