No matter how many emoticons you use, messaging apps (for the most part) remain a rather impersonal form of communication that fall somewhere between e-mail and phone calls on the formality scale.

Artist and actress Miranda July is hoping to change this with her new messaging app Somebody, which will send your missives not directly to your friend, but to a nearby human stranger who will relay the message verbally to its intended recipient.

While the app is very much a real piece of technology, it is also a far-reaching public art project that to some extent involves the sender replacing their avatar with a real-life messenger, who is being directed in a mini performance. On the app's website, July describes Somebody as: "The antithesis of the utilitarian efficiency that tech promises, here, finally, is an app that makes us nervous, giddy, and alert to the people around us."

To send a message, you select a friend from within the app and that friend will respond letting you know whether or not it is a good time for them. You then write out your note and add instructions and actions, to help your messenger get the delivery just right. You'll be able to select a nearby messenger to be your stand-in by looking at their picture, their likes, their reviews, and their ratings. Your friend and stand-in will be sent each other's pictures and locations so they can find one another. Once your message has been delivered, you will be notified.

July came up with the concept of the app in March this year and worked with a designer and a team of digital designers to make it happen. Accompanying the app is a film that is part of Miu Miu's Women's Tales series.

The app works best when more people around you are using it, and so to improve adoption, artistic institutions around the world—mostly based in the US—are acting as hotspots for interactions. You can also create your own hotspots and Somebody will help you spread the word about it. Recommended locations include universities, workplaces, birthday parties, and concerts.

Obviously Somebody is not the most efficient messaging app out there, but that's hardly the point. To those out there who wonder why they wouldn't just send a text instead, July says: "Unpredictable, undocumented, fleeting interactions with strangers can bring great joy and inspiration! Pretending to be someone else is liberating. The feeling is a little like Truth or Dare and Charades." And if that isn't reason enough to give it a go, we don't know what it is.