The Scoop: Coral is one of the best apps out there if you’re looking for a deeper sexual connection with your partner. We talked to the app’s founder, Isharna Walsh, about Coral’s new couple-focused features, including question packs, encrypted messaging, and meaningful conversation prompts.
Most people don’t realize just how important their sexual well-being is to their overall health. And sexual well-being is about way more than how “good” the sex you have is. Your sexual well-being encompasses the physical, emotional, mental, and social aspects of your sexuality.
Sexual well-being is essential– and complicated. Many different factors influence and impact your sexuality, from the religious environment in which you were raised to the last relationship you were a part of. And when we experience challenges, finding the root cause isn’t always straightforward.
When you’re in any kind of sexual relationship, but especially a committed and also romantic one, your sexual health doesn’t just affect you anymore. It also affects your partner.
With our partners in the mix– the people we love, care about, and want to make happy– we have two distinct experiences, backgrounds, and understandings of sex and sexuality. We have to work together with our partners to learn about each other and find the right balance.
We talked to Isharna Walsh, the founder of Coral, an app that combines comprehensive sex education with connective tools for you to use with yourself and your partner. Coral is about to roll out new, extended features that expand its offerings for couples.
Isharna told us that when Coral first launched, she and the team hoped to create a space where people could go to improve their sexual health. While the app had many purposes, the team found one cohort of people who seemed to be getting a lot out of Coral: couples.
Couples are using Coral to learn about their own and each other’s sexuality, increase their confidence, deepen their connection, and unlock enhanced pleasure. Isharna sat down with us to announce Coral’s new couple-focused features and talk us through how Coral is switching gears.
“Historically, we’ve been really about sexual self-improvement and helping people improve their intimate lives and connect more deeply to their partners,” Isharna said. “And what we’ve seen is that people really want a tool to help them communicate with their partner better. So that’s what we’re doing.”
Coral Has Helped Thousands of Couples Connect
When we talked to Isharna back in September 2023, she told us about the basics of Coral and her inspiration for starting the platform. We talked about how sex education falls short in many places across the country and the world, and how Coral was attempting to make high-quality sex ed materials more accessible.
Coral offered educational resources, guided exercises and games for couples, and encrypted chats that kept messages between couples safe. Couples could link their Coral accounts to each other and connect either in person or when they’re apart.
During our last interview, Isharna said something that stuck with me, and that I think captures the mission of Coral perfectly:
“Coral helps couples learn about exploring and understanding each other’s bodies, what they enjoy, and really experiencing the fullness of their sexuality and exploring sexuality together.”
Coral is focusing more on couples, but its mission has stayed fundamentally the same. Coral helps people experience shame-free pleasure, take control over their own sexual well-being, and learn to enjoy the process of personal and relationship growth.
“We’re focusing on giving couples the features they need to have conversations that they wouldn’t normally have and consciously create more meaningful moments as a couple,” Isharna said. “We saw what people moved about the app, and I think we underestimated how important chatting was.”
Isharna told us that busy couples can struggle to find time for “sweet or sexy” connection. Coral’s expanded features aim to make time for connection easier to come by.
Expanded Features for Couples
The Coral team was getting a lot of positive feedback about the app, but specifically about the app’s messaging features. Couples were finding the in-app messaging to be useful for a lot of reasons.
Staying in touch with your partner throughout the day, whether it’s virtual or face-to-face, keeps your connection strong. Daily check-ins that don’t relate to the logistics of scheduling, kids, home duties, or work keep you and your partner emotionally connected.
And that emotional connection translates into your sexual connection. Without the emotional connection being built and nurtured throughout the day, finding that deep sexual intimacy becomes more difficult, if not impossible.
“We have this daily flow with our partners– you’ve got groceries, bills, jobs, kids– and it’s quite hard to strike up a flirty conversation in your text messages,” Isharna said. “So we’ve created this space, especially for people with older children, where they can message completely privately.”
Isharna told us Coral’s new features are specifically geared toward couples with kids. If you have kids, you know that your phone is pretty much their phone. Having a dedicated space to text with your partner gives you the freedom to let things get as emotional or sexy as you please.
Coral is kept secure through face ID-activated unlocking and encrypted messaging. When you get a notification from Coral, it doesn’t disclose who messaged you or the nature of the message. You simply see you have a notification from Coral.
“It’s really this place outside of your day-to-day communication to find that playfulness, that sweetness, and that sexiness,” Isharna told us. “We’ve also expanded our question library. We’ve historically had six question packs, and we’re about to roll out 11 new ones for a total of 17.”
Isharna said these packs are going to cover all the conversation topics, from the more serious discussions about finances to exploring kink and fantasy. Coral gives you and your partner the flexibility to find which features strengthen your relationship the most.
Small Connective Moments are the Backbone of Relationships
Every day, couples with the Coral app are sent a question. This question usually relates to sexual wellness, but all prompts are designed to get you and your partner talking about your emotional, physical, mental, and sexual state in an authentic way.
As Coral expands the features that couples love most, Isharna told us they’ll be stripping back some other facets of the platform.
“We’re trying to simplify it,” she told us. “So we’re going to dial back some of the learning and community features while we put the focus on couples. We want it to be super clear to couples what Coral is for and what they can expect from the app.”
When we think about the strength of relationships, I think we tend to make the mistake of undervaluing the importance of small moments. Our relationships are strengthened when our partners show up for us through life-changing events and big adjustments, but their long–term strength is cultivated through much smaller acts of love.
“When you put yourself out there and your partner doesn’t respond, it hurts,” Isharna said. “And it happens in small ways. Like if I say, ‘Look at that bird!’ and my boyfriend doesn’t look up from his phone, or just ignores me.”
While not looking at the bird your partner wants you to see may feel like a minor transgression, it can hurt your partner in a big way. Them asking you to look at the bird was a bid for attention and engagement. It wasn’t really about the bird. It was about having a connective moment with your partner.
“These things can accumulate over time and when our bids go unanswered, it erodes the foundation of the relationship,” Isharna said.
Coral helps couples get on the same page and stay more attuned to their partner’s needs and desires. It empowers them to connect throughout the day, even if they’re juggling busy schedules and can’t be physically with each other.
“Explore the guided exercises and the chat features, and make sure you’re finding time for Coral,” Isharna said. “Even if you have to schedule it. Intimacy with your partner is a priority.”
