"It's been a while" is a common expression in English that is often used to mean "it has been a long time since we last spoke or saw each other." It's a polite and friendly way to start a conversation after not communicating with someone for some time. Other expressions that can be used to express that it has been a long time since you last spoke or saw someone include: "Long time no see!" "It's been ages since we talked." "We haven't spoken in a while." "It feels like forever since we last spoke." Hope this helps. :)

Yes, that's a common way to greet a friend or relative you haven't seen for some time. Another frequently used expression is "Long time, no see."

"A while" means "some time". It doesn't specify whether it's a long time or a short time. If you want to specify a short time, you can say "just a little while". If you want to specify a long time, you can say "quite a while". From context, you can often infer whether it is a short while or a long while. For example, if someone says "I haven't seen you in a while" you can infer that they mean a long while, because why otherwise would they have said such a thing?

You can also use it to talk about how long it has been since you did other things - not just meeting people It’s been a while since I went to the gym It’s been a while since I tried online dating