Welcome back. Professionals are trying new ways to connect as in-person networking remains largely on hold. Retailers want to sell consumers on a new way of shopping. And people who miss air travel are trying to bring the experience home in a surprising way.

Old and new social networks are trying to capitalize on workers’ continued confinement to their homes—and stand out in the shadow of Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn—by offering professionals more sharply defined missions, faster contacts and unusual user experiences.

The Upstream app, for example, encourages people to connect via specific networking groups, Ann-Marie Alcántara reports. The company recently added video events that pair off participants in four one-on-one conversations, lasting for five minutes each.

Other formats are picking up popularity as well, such as audio interactions in apps like Clubhouse, Chalk and Watercooler.

“Earlier this year, people were basically homebound and had a lack of human connection and of meeting new people,” said Alex Taub, co-founder and chief executive of Upstream. “Us and others have filled that void pretty nicely and there is so much more to do.”

Retailers are designing the in-store experience for Loop, a sustainable-packaging project previously only available online, Katie Deighton reports.

Loop offers products like Häagen-Dazs ice cream and Clorox wipes in refillable containers. Consumers are charged deposits of $1 to $10 on each package and get the money back only if they return their empties.

Chains including Kroger, Tesco and Loblaws are now planning Loop “corners” in their stores that they hope will interest and educate shoppers.

Japanese supermarket group Aeon will have Loop employees at its “corners” to answer questions. Products will sit on Loop-branded shelving, with pedestals for items that Aeon deems particularly attractive.

Japanese shoppers love packaging and design, said Satoshi Morikiyo, general manager of convenience goods at Aeon. “We’re envisioning people taking selfies or photos in the Loop corner,” he said.

Little-appreciated and even unpopular aspects of customer experiences can resonate later in funny ways.

At least, that’s one explanation for a surprising phenomenon reported in the Journal: People who aren’t flying during the pandemic are ordering airplane food to eat at home.

After the coronavirus scuttled a trip to Australia with her parents, for example, 23-year-old America Edwards bought JetBlue-branded snack packs to eat with her family in Kalamazoo, Mich. “We were all talking about how we missed airports and airplanes,” Ms. Edwards said. “Just bringing some of it into the house made us a little less stir crazy.”

In Sydney, grounded TV writer Dan Barrett bought 20 meals from Gate Gourmet—more for practical reasons than a love of travel, he said.

But he recalled having a particularly good omelet on a domestic flight in Australia about 15 years ago. “There’s no reason at all I should remember that trip, but I remember the omelet,” he said.

The NBA and WNBA are using a database of music, audio cues and graphics to evoke teams’ home courts as they play in Florida. [NYT]

Apple’s TestFlight is a tool to test software en route to the App Store, but developers increasingly see it as a place to share apps just among themselves and their friends. [Protocol] 

Chrome for Android will start displaying “Fast page” labels for web pages deemed to offer a good experience. [VentureBeat]

A new company is promising BlackBerry-branded phones with physical keyboards and 5G. [XDA Developers] 

Offices and stores could start looking more like hospitals, in a good way. [Fast Company]