The phone and social media

Every Grand Theft Auto since the fourth has put a phone in the protagonist's pocket. In Grand Theft Auto 6 it matters more than before, because the person on the other end is usually the other playable character.

Texting the other lead

Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, played part of the game for IGN and talked through the system as he went. As reported by RockstarINTEL and Inven Global, you can text and call Lucia while playing as Jason, and the other way round, at any point.

His example was a small one, and that's what makes it useful. The two can spend a whole day apart. Late on, one texts the other to say they're heading to bed and asks if everything's all right. Reply with something short and that's fine. Ignore it and the relationship takes a small hit.

Inven Global's account of the same interview has Nelson saying the romance isn't something Rockstar wants to force on players, and that whether you've nurtured it or not will have a bearing on how the story plays out. It's the strongest thing Rockstar has said so far about the relationship having consequences.

Texts in the middle of a job

Texts don't stop when a mission starts. In the Extended Look's penthouse job, Lucia's at the party upstairs while Jason works through the dark floors below, and her messages flash up on his screen for about a second each: "GUYS EVERYWHERE" in capitals, then a longer one warning about "10+ guys, auto weps, explosives". It's the first time anyone's been able to read a phone message mid-mission. We pulled all of them from the 4K master.

Apps: stolen cars and a lift for your own

Edge's cover feature (29 October), from a demo Rockstar ran for the magazine, names two more apps. WAINK lists the cars fences want, with each car's security and whether it can be tracked, and it's one way to raise money. The stealing cars page has the detail. Scooter Bros brings your own car to you for a small fee. A driver turns up within seconds and leaves on the scooter he rode in on.

A feed you can read but can't post to

The in-game social network, which Inven Global's report calls Snapmatic, lets you follow accounts and look at their posts. You can't share anything as Jason or Lucia. The reason given is a story one: they're a couple on the run, and people on the run don't post.

Both trailers lean on that feed. The first was cut largely from it, with vertical clips framed by usernames, captions and Follow buttons.

A follow-only feed gives the world a voice without handing the player a megaphone. It also fits a game whose police build cases from evidence. A protagonist who could post would be publishing evidence against themselves.

Headphones

Rockstar's radio announcement on 8 October added the phone's other new job: Jason and Lucia can connect headphones or earbuds and keep listening on foot, to the radio or to on-demand podcasts, so the sound doesn't have to stop when you get out of the car. The radio stations page has the six stations named so far.

What isn't known

We don't know how much of the relationship runs on texts, or whether calls and texts unlock anything, like backup or a meet-up (Scooter Bros covers getting your car, but that's an app, not your partner). It's not clear what the feed holds beyond ambient posts, or whether missions and people you meet turn up in it.

Then there's Peekhole, an apparent OnlyFans parody advertised with a QR code on a poster in the Jack of Hearts. Nobody knows yet if it's an app on Jason and Lucia's phones or just a joke poster.

Rockstar hasn't said whether the phone has a camera mode, a browser, banking or a contacts list on the scale of earlier games, or whether either lead can ever post, even late in the story. The app's name might not be final either. It comes from one report of the interview, and not from Rockstar's own material.

All of the mechanical detail above comes from guided demos, IGN's in October and Edge's later that month, plus what's readable in the Extended Look. Review code has reportedly gone out to media, with an embargo reported for 18 November, but until then nobody who's played it can say how it holds up.