By: Nick Swafford

If you have an iPhone, odds are that you’ve used an iMessage application called Game Pigeon. As many people know, Game Pigeon is an app that can be downloaded into your iMessages as a program that allows friends to pass time with a fun, classic assortment of games that can be messaged back and forth between texters. The games played between texters are easy to learn and can be a wonderful substitute for awkward conversations. Some of the games include:

• 8-ball
• 9-ball
• Battleship (Sea Battle)
• Basketball
• Cup Pong
• Anagrams
• Four in a Row
• Mini Golf
• Knockout
• Uno (Crazy 8)
• Word Hunt
• Filler
• Checkers
• Chess
• Dots and Boxes
• 20 Questions

My personal favorite is probably 8-ball. Even before Game Pigeon became a big deal, I was playing different 8-ball games on my phone, and I also played a good deal of pool in real life. Once Game Pigeon rose to popularity around 2016, I quickly got adjusted to the iMessage version of 8-ball and gained wins nearly exponentially. As of right now, I currently have a little over 380, and I’m still slowly but surely gaining wins. Yet, ever since mid-2017, the app has taken a fall from it’s high-held pedestal. In a poll created on the Heritage Herald’s twitter, it was found that about 75% of people don’t consistently play Game Pigeon, which doesn’t come as a complete surprise to me, as the poll would have been heavily skewed and inaccurate because of the amount of people who have iPhones and can play it but choose not to. Because Twitter is available on a wide variety of platforms and Game Pigeon is not, not everyone that voted on the poll is capable of playing the app.

However, I know plenty of people that still stick with Game Pigeon and use it with friends as a source of entertainment. Even I still use it to play Uno with my friends at lunch when we have nothing else to do, and I enjoy it a lot. I’m sure tons of other people also have great memories held in these games. In seventh or eighth grade, me and a close friend of mine thought that it was a great idea to hold a contest between us to see who could beat the other 100 times in 8-ball. Long story short: I came out on top, which was surprising, as we held pretty steady scores up until I reached 70 wins. Fast forward to the start of 9th grade, and we tried again. This time, I ended up getting beaten mercilessly after giving up when he took a 25-game lead.

I have other entertaining stories that include friends using Game Pigeon as a way to get girls’ numbers and even stories about how random people would just text me out of the blue demanding to play me in one game or another. Many good memories of mine involve Game Pigeon. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has had memories stem from Game Pigeon, so it is odd watching the game platform become less and less commonly used. The wings, per say, of Game Pigeon are definitely losing their power, but I will continue using it for a few reasons—including reaching 400 8-ball wins. With more people forgetting all about the app, who knows how long it is until it becomes a thing of the past. I, however, will keep using it until the end because as long as I crave friendly competition, this will be one of my go-tos. Do you have any important or funny memories of Game Pigeon? Feel free to share.