Here’s something fun you can do with the Starbucks app: You can mobile order and pay an order for a store that is nowhere near you.

If you have an iPhone, you’ll even get a little warning in red about the distance of your mobile order and pay:

Cheyenne Wyoming order

That could make you chuckle. “You’re about 1615 minutes away from this store. Your order will be ready in about 4 to 9 minutes.“

That’s the ‘I don’t think you can get there in time’ message.

What does this mean? You can pay it WAAAAY forward. If you have a friend or a family member whom you know will be dropping by a store, and let’s say you know this person loves a S’Mores Frappuccino, you can mobile order and pay for it. I can totally imagine this: Friends or family members coordinating something like, “Drop by the Tustin & Meats Starbucks – your Frappuccino is waiting for you!”

I had to try this myself:

Tustin and Meats StarbucksI’m in Seattle and ordered a coffee via mobile order and pay at a store 1000 miles away! My drink is 1,064 miles away from me! (Don’t worry. I called the store and asked the baristas to give away the coffee to any customer who wanted it.)

You could, in theory, really play a twist on this. It’s possible in the Mobile Order and Pay app to change your name on the order. You could change your name to hashtag #ForSomeoneInNeed. I gave this a try too. I ordered a Grande Passion Tea Lemonade to a store in Phoenix. Again, I’m in Seattle:

Screenshot_20160620-205147 19th and ThunderbirdSure enough, I successfully mobile ordered and payed for a drink going to a store 1,266 miles away from me. I changed my name to #ForSomeoneInNeed.

Here’s my drink:

For SomeOne in NeedA barista at the store knew that I’d be sending this drink to her store. She gave it away and made a customer’s day. The barista said, “And the guy I gave it to was SO grateful! It’s 115° out here right now!”

“Pay it forward” no longer means the car behind you in the drive thru. It could be a friend in another state. It could be a random store you’re walking by where you just mobile order and pay a Grande Pike Place Roast. It would be hilarious and heart warming at the same time if suddenly stores starting getting Mobile Order and Pay receipts coming in that say, #ForSomeoneInNeed.

In the iPhone version of the app, you can even get a fun map!

IMG_51291 bainbridge island to michigan starbucks mobile order and pay

I stumbled upon this feature when talking to a friend who recently relocated to Michigan. The friend in Michigan wanted to be able to gift a drink and breakfast sandwich to someone she knew was down on his luck. Her idea: I’ll just mobile order and pay a drink and sandwich to the friend down on his luck.

Pretty neat idea.

Now it’s up to you to play with this. Long distance mobile order and pay. Send a drink to a friend (be sure you coordinate this carefully!) or give a random drink away using the hashtag #ForSomeoneInNeed. If you try this, I want to know how it works out for you!

(To change your name in the app, click on the gear icon. Your name is in the settings area of the app.)