From Side Project to Viral TikTok Challenge - Building Paint Your Partner

The Idea

Long distance couples have limited options for virtual dates. Watching movies together gets old. We built Paint Your Partner as a simple premise: draw portraits of each other in real-time, then reveal the results.

It went viral on TikTok as the Paint Your Partner challenge.

The MVP

The first version took two weeks to build:

• Two canvases, synchronized via WebSockets
• A timer
• A reveal button

No accounts. No persistence. No features. Just the core experience.

// The entire reveal logic in v1
function reveal() {
  socket.emit('reveal');
  document.getElementById('partner-canvas').style.display = 'block';
  document.getElementById('your-canvas').style.display = 'block';
}

Why It Worked

The Paint Your Partner challenge succeeded because:

1. Simple to explain - Draw your partner, reveal at the same time
2. Guaranteed funny results - Most people can't draw well
3. Shareable outcome - Two portraits side by side is perfect for TikTok
4. No skill required - Bad drawings are part of the fun

Technical Decisions That Mattered

No accounts required: Couples don't want to create accounts for a 10-minute activity. We use room codes instead.

Mobile-first canvas: Most TikTok users are on phones. The drawing canvas needed to work with touch, handle palm rejection, and fit portrait orientation.

Instant sharing: After reveal, one tap generates a shareable image with both portraits. This drove organic growth.

The TikTok Effect

The first viral video came from a couple we'd never heard of. Their Paint Your Partner video got 2 million views. Traffic spiked 50x overnight.

What we learned:

• TikTok traffic is mobile traffic (optimize accordingly)
• Viral spikes are temporary (have a retention strategy)
• User-generated content is your best marketing

Scaling Challenges

The viral spike exposed problems:

1. WebSocket connections maxed out - Upgraded server capacity
2. Room code collisions - Moved from 4-digit to 6-character codes
3. Canvas rendering on low-end phones - Optimized stroke rendering

Current State

Paint Your Partner now handles thousands of daily sessions. The average couple spends 12 minutes drawing each other.

We've added:

• Optional voice chat during drawing
• Multiple brush sizes and colors
• Save and share functionality
• Timer customization

Try It

Play Paint Your Partner free at paintyourdate.io or learn more about the challenge at artbitrator.com/paint-your-partner.

For virtual date ideas and how the challenge works, see our complete Paint Your Partner guide.