Making new friends as an adult is hard. Like, really hard. You tried to keep in contact with your friends from high school but you’ve drifted apart. Maybe you were offered that great new job in California, but now that you’ve settled in, you’re tired of Netflix on your own every night. You want to make new friends but only know about dating apps like Tinder. You don’t want to swipe right, you’re simply looking to meet new people, boost your social circle, find people with similar interests, and maybe, just maybe, get yourself a new best friend.
If the above sounds like you, you’re in luck. Today we’re bringing you the best apps to help you meet people. Let’s go beyond your regular social media accounts and start looking at some specialized social networks built especially you find platonic friends. These are the best friendship apps.
Top 3 apps to make friends
Meetup
Meetup is one of the most popular apps for social networking. More geared toward meeting in groups, it asks you what some of your favorite activities are. Toggle the distance meter, and you’ll see a bunch of different groups meeting to enjoy some of the things that you like to do. This social app is great for finding like-minded people. If you love horror movies, for example, you’ll likely be able to find a group of 30 potential friends meeting to see the newest slasher flick at the theater downtown. You can download Meetup for Android and iOS devices.
Some groups require you to answer questions to be approved to prevent spam, but once you’re in, you can RSVP to an event. A lot of events have a limited amount of space based on where it’s being held, so introduce yourself and get in on the fun.
Hey! VINA
This one is for the ladies! After you sign up, take a profile quiz and you’ll know the color of your aura, your friendship language (quality time, anyone?), and the planet you’re most like – everyone’s results show up on their profile so you can see if you’re kindred spirits. A cool feature of this app is that you can see how many people want to meet you, but you have to match to see who they are unless you purchase a subscription: one week for $5.99, three months for $29.99, or $47.99 for six months.
Swipe left to pass and right if you want to grab a cup of coffee or hit up a sweat session at your local gym. If you match, say hey, and boom – friends!
Bumble BFF
Bumble was originally just for dating, but it opened up another two sections last year – Bumble Bizz, a section for business and networking, and Bumble BFF for meeting people in real life. You can belong to all three sections if you want – just switch between modes and we think it’s pretty awesome that all your messages are in the same place. Easy peasy. And don’t let the name fool you, it’s for ladies and gents both.
A special feature of Bumble BFF is that you can become verified to show other people that you are who you say you are. Just upload a selfie, add your phone number, and once it’s approved you’ll have a blue checkmark on your profile next to your name – kind of like Twitter. Similar to Hey! Vina, just swipe left and right to let people know that you wanna hang out. Simple enough, but there’s a catch.
Once you match with someone, if you swiped right last, you have 24 hours to introduce yourself or your match will expire. If you were speed-swiping and accidentally swiped left on a promising buddy, don’t worry – you can give your phone a little shake and it will reverse one swipe. Let’s say that your phone dies and you missed out on someone that you really vibed with. If you need a second chance, you can purchase unlimited rematches: one week for $8.99, one month for $24.99 and other options.
There’s no time like the present. Get out there and have some fun!
