In an attempt to describe Italian phatic connectives, this paper discusses the addressee's involvement in the conversation -which transpires through phatic connectives-, focusing on the interactive features of the conversation and on the common construction of the message. A pairing of addressee and speaker's phatic connectives, which seem to match each other, answering a given interactional function, is then proposed. Some general remarks on the sociolinguistic variables related to the use of phatic connectives are dealt with briefly.