In a loneliness crisis, Londoners are turning to apps to make friends.
A YouGov survey found that 52 per cent of women in the UK find it difficult to make new friends, and only 15 per cent of people in London had made a new friend within the last five years.
In response, traditional dating apps such as Bumble and Tinder have both introduced friendship features. Meanwhile, several apps dedicated to helping city dwellers make friends have emerged in recent years.
The latest app hoping to solve the problem of making new platonic connections is gofrendly, an app popular in Sweden that launches in London today. Unlike other apps on the market, gofrendly is specifically for women looking to build female friendships.
Ulrika Lilja, co-founder and CEO of gofrendly, said: “We allow women to focus on the joy of making new friends, rather than the effort of finding them, and are delighted that gofrendly will now allow women in the UK to benefit from the invaluable enrichment that comes with female friendship.”
So if you’re looking to meet some new people in London, find people with mutual interests, or join a new club, check out these apps.
Gofrendly
For: making friends with other women
Gofrendly is an app that uses AI technology to help users find compatible matches.
It was created in 2015, when co-founders Ulrika and Claudia met on a Facebook-arranged “friendship date,” and is now popular in Stockholm.
To date, its creators say the app has generated nearly 11 million direct messages, 4,600 coffee dates, 2,537 friend groups, and 70 trips away. It has also onboarded users as young as 18 and as old as 86.
The app is free to download and use, with a £3.99 per month “gopremium” option providing access to additional privacy and discovery features, such as the ability to see who has visited your profile, and to hide yourself from main feeds.
The app also has functions that allows users to host and join events and groups, enabling them to further expand their friendship circle with like-minded individuals.
Locals
For: finding friends with similar interests
Locals is an app designed for communities of “inspiring, mindful, and entrepreneurial people”.
Users can set up an event, such as visiting a local cafe, or doing an activity like rock climbing, for example, listing exactly where and when they want to go. Other users with similar interests can then request to join the group.
Locals also shows users profiles of people they may be interested in meeting, with the option to “wave” at them.
Verified users can see other members’ social media pages, and some features of the app are only accessible to users with premium memberships.
A premium Locals membership costs £29.99 a month or £119.99 a year.
MeetUp
For: finding events online and in-person
MeetUp is an app that allows people to find events in their area — and to meet people who share similar interests.
Examples of events that are advertised on MeetUp include a walk in Greenwich Park on a Sunday afternoon and a queer open mic night.
Londoners can also find professional events, online and in person, to find connections in their industry.
MeetUp users join groups within the app, and are then notified when the group hosts an event in their area, making it easier than ever to meet people IRL.
MeetUp pro costs around £25 a month, but anyone can make an account for free.
