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Candle (YC F24)

One shared moment a day

Android
Dating
Games
Lifestyle

Candle is a daily game that helps close friends and couples strengthen their connection through one shared, random challenge a day. Each day unlocks a new, interactive moment, a thoughtful question, unique debate, drawing or photo challenge, mini game, or simple local date idea. Candle creates small “connection nudges” that gently spark conversation, play, in person connection, and emotional closeness.

Top comment

This is a really nice idea, especially since staying connected takes effort even with close friends. In early testing, what kept people coming back more, the daily randomness or the feeling of having a shared ritual?

Comment highlights

Beautiful app, lots of intresting questions, keeping us engaged and more new topics to talk in LDR

Congrats on the launch! Super cool seeing this app flourish and yall's dedication to constantly improving it! The shared canvas is so good

@alexruber

Congrats on your launch! As a family therapist in my former career, this kind of app is so needed. And as someone with pretty messy ADHD, this is a great idea for making sure I don't lose touch with people I'm close with other than sending them reels all day 🤣

Congrats on the launch! Been awesome seeing y'all grow this. The drawing feature is 🤌

Hi everyone! We’re excited to share Candle 2.0 with you! a daily game for couples and close friends designed to help you stay close through fun, thoughtful prompts and activities.

Why we built Candle:
We believe most relationships don’t end because of one singular event. They fade through the small conversations that never happen. Life gets busy, routines take over, and emotional momentum slowly disappears. That quiet erosion of presence can turn into distance, tension, resentment and/or misunderstandings over time.

We’ve spoken to hundreds of friends and couples, and their stories are rarely about one explosive fight. More often, they’re about drift, missed moments, unspoken thoughts, and connection slowly slipping away. Candle was built as a response to that slow drift. A simple way to practice connection daily or weekly.

What Candle is:
Candle is a private space to reconnect, whether you’re in the same room or miles apart. It started as a swipeable game and has grown into a shared home for your relationship or friendship.

Features:

  • Home and lock screen widgets for distance between you, countdowns to dates/vacations/meetups, streaks, and shared moments

  • Daily prompts and mini games with thoughtful, funny, and unexpected questions, games, audio, and photo challenges

  • Share photos and doodles straight to their home screen

  • Date Ideas (beta) with 60+ curated ideas based on your city, updated weekly, swipe to match on what you both want to try

  • Streaks and shared progress to build emotional rhythm and accountability over time

  • Adaptive decks that evolve, delivering smarter, more relevant content as your relationship grows