While there's nothing wrong with being single, it's the invasive questions about your relationship status you can do without.

You've probably joked about making one up, that is, until you thought about how much effort goes into maintaining a fake relationship.

Luckily, there's an app for that.

To alleviate the social pressure single people face, St Louis business partners Matthew Homann and Kyle Tabor created the Invisible Boyfriend and Invisible Girlfriend apps.

"Finally. A boyfriend your friends can believe in," the invisible boyfriend app's website says.

Launched this week, for $24.99 a month the app offers a personalised partner in the form of a hundred text messages, 10 voicemails and one handwritten note.

Users decide upon their invisible partner's name, appearance, personality and interests.

They'll also send you crowd-sourced selfies and a story about how you met the love of your life.

"It really helps people tell a better story about a relationship they're not in," Homann told Betabeat.

Homann bought the invisibleboyfriend and invisiblegirlfriend domain names nine years ago after he divorced from his wife.

Tired of being pushed into the dating scene, the idea came to him one Thanksgiving  when his mum asked if he was bringing a date.

"In that moment I realised how great it would be to have an answer for her that didn't require me to actually be dating someone," Homann wrote on the app's website.

But it wasn't until November 2013 that Homann's idea became a reality after he pitched the app at a Startup Weekend in St Louis, and won.

Initially, "it seemed to be easy to joke about the idea of the service", he said.

"[But] we really have been surprised and humbled - there are people who look at this, it's not a joke for them."

While the app went live into public beta this week (meaning there are still some bugs to iron out) co-founder Tabor said they've had some positive feedback.

Playing hard to get, one user told Tabor the girl he was dating "saw that he had an upcoming date with another girl - his Invisible Girlfriend", Tabor said.

"That put a fire underneath her - she needed to lock things down," he said.

Another user claims to use the app to practice texting men for when she does meet someone.

The app is currently only available in the US and Canada.

The website claims: "The service creates a safe space for you to practice texting with a real human if you're out of practice. Sometimes it even inspires just enough jealousy to jolt that special person into committing."

Though it sounds like the perfect solution, Metro points out, "there is the small issue of when your family and friends want to meet the new love of your life".