Friendship apps could be a way to cure modern loneliness

When you were a kid, chances are you were surrounded by a large group of other kids each day at school. You were spending hours together from the start of daycare to preschool and all the way through the grades. They were the people you spent the most time with, and you may have even seen them during extracurricular activities as well. When you’re young and impressionable, you’re a bit of a blank slate in terms of who you might want to become friends with.

It’s easier to find and make friends as a kid because you don’t have the experiences of the world to jade you. A friendship can start because you were assigned to the same group project or even because the other person shared a ball with you during play time. Obviously, it’s different for every person but, in general, the older you get, the harder it is to make new friends. Not only because you have less free time, but also because you have a better judgment of what a friendship with someone might offer you.

According to results from an American Survey Center survey, 56% of Gen Z respondents said they felt lonely once or twice a month during childhood. This compares to only 24% of baby boomers during that same period of time. This data doesn’t mean people should stop looking for friendships as they get older, and there are plenty of apps out there designed to help others make friends as adults.

Making friends as an adult is hard

There’s so much more to navigate

Isolation is something many of us know all too well. Just five years removed from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, people were forced to quarantine and stay away from one another. While this may have been the first time some people felt lonely in their lives, it’s hardly true for everyone. Studies show that 36% of all Americans as well as 61% of young adults feel lonely.

Social media can offer increased pressures, as it’s easier to find things online than it ever has been before. There are limited levels of privacy available, but people can also show their life however they wish online. Someone might be struggling with depression and loneliness but put on a completely different face online — the persona of being happy can mask loneliness, but it doesn’t get rid of it at the root. Navigating the modern landscape and the “friendship economy” means not only wanting to find friendship but seeking it out as well.

That’s where friendship apps can come into play

They offer a variety of experiences, so pick your cup of tea

With dating apps becoming so prevalent in the zeitgeist, it makes sense that people might want to try and find friends from the comfort of their own home. Rather than having to go out and try and do everything to start a friendship while you’re in public, you can match with like-minded people through friendship apps. Apps like Bumble for Friends, Yubo, and Les Amis were created to help people build platonic relationships.

“Friendship is such a basic thing,” Anna Bilych, founder of Les Amis, told Pocket-lint. “But it’s quite hard to keep a friend and quite hard to find one too.”

Les Amis is an app focused on helping women build friendships through online connections and offline events. Bilych noted that the average time spent with friends per week has dropped to six hours for millennials and 4.5 hours for Gen Z. She and her co-founder Oleg Pashinin aimed to create an app that not only built meaningful relationships but also aimed to make setting up plans easier. Les Amis is a subscription-based app focused more on Millennials that connects users with like-minded people via algorithms, offers hundreds of events in different cities globally, and allows for a private space to continue conversations.

Yubo is focused mostly on Gen Z, as it has a similar interface to Tinder with its swiping across different profiles. It’s meant to connect people for platonic relationships and uses tools like live-streaming and group chats to help people connect with one another. Bumble for Friends is also focused on people in their early 20s, and it also works like Bumble, where people can swipe yes or no on others.

How can these apps help people find friends?

There’s a lot that can happen

Focusing on what makes each person unique is the first key. Setting up a profile is how you can best show yourself to others. It may not be the most organic way to meet someone, but showing who you truly are in your profile can give people a better idea of what you like. All of these apps rely on algorithms to match people up. Les Amis took the anti-dating app approach and just pairs people weekly, leaving the introductions out of the hands of its users.

“Totally against swiping because it feels transactional,” said Bilych. “We are checking with who you connect with and who you might connect with going forward based on the algorithms. The app tells people why they connected with someone else.”

This is a unique aspect because the app basically gives you icebreakers to discuss. The built-in events that are set up and run by Les Amis are what separates it from the free apps. Making plans for people to meet up can be easier for people to then follow through on it. If you’re paying for it, you might as well use your money wisely.

Are apps the right way to meet friends?

They certainly can’t hurt

If you’re struggling with meeting new people, trying some of these apps might be a good way to do so. It can feel like a strange way to set up a new friendship, but there are plenty of other people out there trying them as well. If you want to have events set up to make a face-to-face meeting easier to set up, something like Les Amis might be for you.

If you want to keep the conversation going online, apps like Yubo and Bumble for Friends can work as well. Of course, you can always try and search for local hangouts on different social media apps as well. The desire for friendship needs to come from within, and these apps can just make the actual connections easier.