How cool is this site? WindowSwap.

“Open a new window somewhere in the world” says the text on the homepage — and that’s all WindowSwap does. Shows you a different view, from someone’s window. You can also share your window, a 10-minute horizontal video that will be randomly opened by strangers from all over the world.

A welcoming, fresh site that is so simple at its core that of course it has to exist! When we don’t travel as much, or at all, it’s refreshing to be able to see a view from someone else’s window, in a different part of the world. Not all views are scenic, but even a backyard with neighboring houses is pleasant to the eyes that are sore from seeing the sameness of the lockdown view every day. Nothing big, nothing important, just a little site with windows to the big world.

I found myself having it open for quite a long time and using it while “thinking and staring out the window”. It feels like trying on someone else’s day for a few minutes, with the weather and possibilities that the outside provides, with the mood and the space of what’s in front of the window. Like traveling, this is a chance to get away from your own life for a bit. Not because you hate your life, but simply because it’s interesting. It makes you wonder about all of the other possibilities that will never fit into one life, but that you can have samples of. As plain and straightforward as a view from the window, it gives you a chance to glimpse into Portugal one minute, Australia the next, and Romania after that. (These are the places that I viewed from my browser window in the past quarter of an hour.)