Tired of Facebook, Instagram, and dating apps to make new friends? Here are a few other great apps for making new friends:
Humans are social creatures — and even if you call yourself an introvert, you still need friends. If you’ve recently taken a new step in life or moved to a different city or country, it’s only natural for you to look to hang out with people and make new friends.
But thanks to technology, socializing is now easier than ever. Some might say that technology has distanced us from each other, but a lot of social media apps have brought us together as well. Here, we look at four apps for making new friends:
Nextdoor: Your neighborhood app
Nextdoor is a “neighborhood app” that lets you connect more with any of your neighbors who are also using the app. Being a location-based app, Nextdoor not only lets you meet those who live near you, but also lets you get local news and crime alerts on your phone, buy or sell household items, and even get recommendations from your neighbors.
Wary about location based apps? The Nextdoor app was tested by GH Media as secure to use, and has good user ratings. You can find the Nextdoor neighborhood app on Google Play for Android, and on Apple’s App Store for iPhone or iPad. The app is free, as the company makes money from local advertising and partnerships.
Meetup app: Your go-to for social events
If you are a social person and enjoy social gatherings, you’ll find a lot to like about the Meetup app — also available for Android or for iPhone/iPad. As the official app of the popular Meetup website, Meetup is perfect for someone who is looking to explore a city with other people.
The Meetup app offers various categories of events to choose from, such as music, photography and food. You can also add your dates of availability so that app can suggest events happening on those days. And the Meetup app lets you get in touch with other people who are attending similar events. That’s a great way to make new friends and make sure you won’t miss out on gatherings.
Though Meetup is free with limited functionality, its premium features are yours only by subscription, which is offered for one month or as a lifetime.
SAY: Group video chat messenger app
The Say app for Google Play (Android) and for iPhone/iPad is one of the newest apps for making new friends, and is a fantastic app to make friends who share similar interests with you. There are a lot of social media apps out there, and some of them can leave you feeling empty. Say lets you easily start or join a group video chat with people who like to talk about the same things as you do.
With Say, you can start your own new group in the app, or you can join a group that’s already active. Even better? The Say group video chat app is completely secure and ad-free.
Patook: The platonic friends app
Another app for making “friends, not dates” is Patook, which bills itself as a platonic friends app. The app connects two people with the help of a point-based ranking system. First, Patook asks you to rank certain traits based on your preference, including gender, languages, interests and location. Then based on that, you can connect with the people who you ranked the best.
With Patook, you can send an anonymous message to start a chat, or you can see each other’s profiles if you have both ranked each other. Don’t care to share your profile with everyone? You can easily hide your profile from people until you connect with them.
You can find Patook’s platonic friends app on Google Play for Android, and on Apple’s App Store for iPhone or iPad. Patook is also free.
