LoveSync was created to potentially help couples with problems in the bedroom by enabling them to wordlessly express their desire for sex. How? LoveSync consists of two buttons, which are usually placed on each partner’s bedside tables. Whoever feels like initiating it taps their button, a pair of palm-sized, black and silver buttons, and if both hit their buttons within the specific window of time programmed, the LoveSync lights up in “a swirling glow” as the product’s somewhat cringey video tells us. It aims to inform the other partner that they’re looking for a ‘freak in the sheets’ tonight, and instigates sex.

When it comes to sex, could this be the end of communication as we know it? Or just another viral joke on the internet?

While the sex tech’s Kickstarter video is quite amusing, and the idea of pressing a button to declare you are horny is slightly strange, as many people picked up on Twitter—transforming LoveSync into a viral joke. The founders of LoveSync, a couple from Cleveland, Ohio, named Ryan and Jenn Cmich, said in a promo video that they lost the “joys of romance” after being married for 15 years. According to them, the buttons are a solution to an “age-old problem,” also known as what many married couples describe as ‘monotony’.

I love to anonymously trigger my horniness device in the hopes that my partner has also triggered their horniness device and that the patent-pending lovesync technology finds consensus in our sexual desire spectrum ratings.

— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) February 11, 2019

The project’s Kickstarter page had a goal of $7,500 for it to come to life, and it did. LoveSync received $21,600 from 442 backers by March 2019. This means that around 221 couples thought that spending $57 on these buttons could help improve their ‘romantic communication’. Because the project crowdfund finished in March, and the LoveSync buttons were only sent to buyers in August, it is still unsure whether it actually helped some couples or not.

Despite the viral tweets and some mean comments, LoveSync buttons might be able to make a difference. But here is the thing—should we not be worried that it could do so by eliminating real communication between two people who are supposed to trust one another? Screen Shot spoke to LoveSync’s co-founder, Jenn Cmich, about where the idea for the sex tech came from. Cmich explained that if you feel like you can just ask your partner if they’re in the mood for sex, then you should.

“LoveSync is not meant to replace conversation,” she says, “talking with your partner is an important part of maintaining a healthy relationship. LoveSync is simply a new, nonverbal way to communicate romantically with your partner. It makes connecting easier and more efficient, resulting in more frequent intimate encounters.”

But imagine being married, coming home from a long day at work, and not being able to communicate to your partner that you are, in simpler words, horny; to me, this sounds like you’d need couples counselling, not a ‘fuck’ button. LoveSync aims to encourage potential users to “make their move with confidence,” but by using the device, people are actually throwing any kind of confidence out the window, and instead choosing to ignore the problem in the first place. And what happens if only one half of the couple taps the button? “No risk of rejection, and no pressure on your partner,” says LoveSync’s website. Cmich presses that LoveSync shouldn’t be used as the only way to express your ‘needs’, “Cell phones, texting, and social media have all made connecting to your existing social network easier, and more efficient. LoveSync does the same for couple’s sex lives.” Or at least, it tries to.

Talking about the many jokes around LoveSync, Cmich admits that she saw them but for her, they just highlight the need for this new technology. “Sex is still a topic that people are most comfortable discussing in a joking manner. It’s easier to make fun of than to have a real conversation around the challenges of keeping sex alive in long term relationships. For those that are more uncomfortable talking about sex, or putting themselves out there to initiate, LoveSync is a great alternative way to make your desires known,” she explains. And while there still seems to be some problems linked with such a device, Cmich does have a point.

Are we too afraid of the role technology plays in our lives, especially in our dating lives? Or is LoveSync just too ahead of its time? The answer is still unclear, but, after all, LoveSync is a brand new idea, and as Cmich pointed out, “When online dating was first introduced, there was a stigma to it, only weirdos living in their parent’s basement would need it.” In the meantime, it is obvious that most people are still willing to risk facing rejection when trying to ‘get it on’.

And for the ones who actually see the potential of that innovation, know that LoveSync buttons are out there, waiting to be tapped. LoveSync is also developing an app that will have all of the same functionality as the button. Either way, no judgement should be made, tap away or don’t, love it or hate it—you call the shots.