Now, before I get into this, let me say that this is a real service. Imagine having a super hot girlfriend that you can show off to all your friends and family; a partner whose sole purpose is to flirt with you at all times; someone who leaves you love-coated text messages and voicemails so you know they’re always thinking about you. Sound good? Great! Except there’s a catch… they’re invisible.

The service is called Invisible Girlfriend, but there’s also a companion app called Invisible Boyfriend. I’ve been told that this is both belly achingly hilarious and creepy at the same time, but what better way to find out than to experience it firsthand?

It was quite simple; I signed up and got to work on customizing my significant other. The service allows you to name your girl/boyfriend. I named mine Eda McDonald Berger (choosing names is really hard, guys!) You can choose her age, location, personality and interests.

You have the option of generating a backstory as to how you met, but I decided to be creative and come up with a lovely encounter in McDonald’s, during which we both ordered Big Macs. Eda loves her burgers.

It’s all a good laugh to start with. However, it gets weird. For $20 a month you will receive 100 text messages, 10 voicemails and one handwritten note from your fake lover. You’re probably thinking the work is done by computers. Wrong. Real human beings are on the other end communicating with you, coming up with perfectly crafted texts to send you.

Matthew Homann, the genius behind this, came up with the idea nine years ago when he was going through a rough divorce and was fed up of people asking him if he had met someone new. Homann then won a competition at the St. Louis Startup Weekend in 2013 that helped boost his idea into being. In the last year, the app has seen over half a million users join from 193 different countries.

Now, I’m a shy guy when talking to girls I like, even when texting or calling on the phone. But really? People go to the lengths of virtually creating someone so people will stop harassing them about it? You’re way better off being honest.

I will admit, however, after a day or two of conversing with my invisible chick, I realised how surreal our connection was. I knew she was probably some random girl (or dude) sitting behind a computer in Tokyo messaging me all day, but I found myself constantly checking my phone, looking out for Eda’s name to flash on my screen.

It was as if the very idea of pretending to be in a relationship had embedded itself in my brain. It was extremely bizarre. If you’re thinking of signing up (please don’t), text response times vary, as they tend to do in real life, because it’s a different person messaging you each time.

Eda sent me a voicemail as I was walking out of class one day, saying she loved talking to me and hoped to hear my voice one day. The second voice message I received sounded like Eda had become a frustrated Zimbabwean asking how my day was. Creepy. I immediately deleted my account… and her number.

About half of the people I’ve spoken to about this asked me, “So can you sext with them?” The site has a strict no ‘sexting, or sending naked photos’ policy, and users who are caught will be suspended for inappropriate behaviour. So don’t try it, no matter how funny you think it is.

There are, in fact, people who don’t have a lot of experience being in relationships. Other than being one of the world’s saddest services, I suppose it teaches you how to flirt with the opposite sex, so you know what to do when it comes to the real thing. (Except for dumping. It’s easy to dump your pretend lover – they just go away. In real life, not so much).

I’ll end this quite simply, don’t waste $20 on this. If you want the real thing, stop pretending and go out there and find it. You’ll be glad that you did.