A couple, let's call them Nina and Gregor, had to bridge a long stretch of a long-distance relationship. It mattered to both of them to still be able to "feel" each other somehow during that time — to keep the sense of being close, despite the distance. A solution the way they imagined it simply didn't exist on the market, or only in insufficient quality.
So they asked a programmer friend to build exactly that for them: touchiNG. An app that lets you send each other a touch, a heartbeat, or an emoji via the Apple Watch — no detour through chat or a phone call.
There's no company behind touchiNG, just a single private individual who built the app in their spare time for the two of them and has kept maintaining it ever since.
Nina and Gregor didn't want to keep this idea to themselves. That's why the basic version of touchiNG is available to everyone for free — in the hope that it helps other couples in long-distance relationships feel a little closer, too.
Running the server comes with ongoing costs. The optional premium subscription features are meant to help cover those costs — but touchiNG remains fully and permanently usable without them.