Making friends is hard, but these 5 apps promise to make it easier (2024)

If you're familiar with Bumble, chances are you've heard of Bumble BFF. The platonic version of Bumble launched in 2016, giving us all a new way to be on the apps. With the familiar swiping formula, it's easy for any veteran dating app user or newbie to get a handle on how to look for pals.

Bumble provides you with a collection of tags to help you fill out your profile, so all it takes is a few taps to let other users know that you're new in town, changing careers, and living with a roommate (which are just a sampling of options among the many tags). Similar to most dating profiles, you can also fill out your work, interests, profile prompts, relationship status, and of course, trusty bio, where many users will say what kind of friends they're looking for (though there are also tags for this, if you want to keep it broad). When it comes to actually making conversation, Bumble's infamous 24-hour chat limit helps prompt some messages, even if you feel a little awkward at first.

It doesn't reinvent the relationship app wheel, but it's easy to understand, quick to fill out, and gives you access to tons of potential, local friends in no time at all. Plus, Bumble's popularity helps with there actually being plenty of users on the app (there's a reason it's been hyped on TikTok more than a few times).

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If you find yourself constantly wishing "If only I had someone to do XYZ activity with," you need to check out Meetup.

When you sign up on the app, it'll prompt you to select a few categories of interest, which includes games, health and wellbeing, music, community and environment, and writing, just to name a few. Within each of these categories, there are tons of groups based in your area that host events, both in-person and online. Being in a group of people with a shared interest is great, but for making friends, being in a group like that that holds regular events is even better.

You can also search events by keywords and dates, so if you're looking to do something in the next few days, chances are you can find something you like. The app also comes with a calendar to organize the events you're interested in. Since the pandemic is still a thing, you can also filter out whether you prefer to see just online or in-person events, which you can sort further into indoor and outdoor meetings.

Groups come in all different sizes, from a thousand members to ten members, and the range in interests is impressive. From Meetup alone, you could find a writing group to hang out with on Saturday and a crochet circle that meets at bars on Sunday. While it may not be the first choice for shier folks who prefer one-on-one meetings for first interactions, it can be a great way to get socializing again with people in your area and get back into some hobbies.

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If your idea of a good time is a quality chat with a friend, Slowly might just be for you.

Slowly connects users with people from all over the world, but it's so much more than your basic pen pal app. Rather than providing a place to connect and letting you take care of the rest, Slowly is designed for you to you can actually get to know someone.

Though you start with a username and avatar, the idea is that users spend time to write longer letters to each other to make a connection. While writing a thoughtful letter on demand might feel a bit intimidating, Slowly actually makes an interesting twist on the idea of instant connection. You can find people to talk to in no time at all, but the time it takes to deliver letters is based on the real time it would take for a physical letter to travel that distance between users. For instance, it might take about 26 hours for a letter from someone in Germany to reach someone in California.

To make sure you're spending your time writing to someone looking for a similar sort of pen pal, each user's profile indicates the letter length you'd like to send and receive, how long you'd like people to take to respond, what languages you speak, and your interests. And if you're worried about putting effort into a letter someone might decide not to answer, every Slowly profile shows a user's ratio of letters sent and received letters and the last time they were online. Plus, you can adjust filters and limit how many friends you'll accept, so you'll never have to feel buried under too many letters to write.

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Discord was originally created for gamers to connect easier online, but has blown up to so much more since then.

For the unfamiliar, Discord is a communication app where users gather and chat on different servers. Its origin means that many servers are centered around video games and Twitch streamers, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are servers around podcasts, subreddits, YouTubers and servers that serve as study groups. Basically, you can find any group with a shared interest on Discord. Though it can be a bit confusing at first, you'll soon see that within the servers themselves, there are channels for varying interests — a Twitch streamer's server might have a channels for general chatting and specific video games, as well as a book club, a channel to drop pet pictures, and another one to talk favorite TV shows. Channels keep things from getting chaotic, and make it easy to chat about specific interests within larger groups. If you and someone really see the friendship sparks starting to fly, you can DM and add them to your friend list.

If you can't find a server that speaks to you, creating your own is quick and easy. Making a server is also a great option for strengthening your existing friendships by providing a place to talk, connect, and jump on a call at a moment's notice — think of it like a marginally more interactive group chat.

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We all know there's no faster way to learn about the neighborhood drama than by getting on Nextdoor. While that's plenty of reason to make an account, it can also be a valuable resource for getting to know your neighbors and get involved with your local community.

Maybe Nextdoor doesn't seem like the first spot you'd go to make friends, and to that we ask — what bonds people more than the mutual dislike of the one neighbor that won't stop blasting bad trap music at 2 a.m.? The answer is nothing.

In all seriousness, Nextdoor can pretty good resource to get to know your neighbors. Though there's no formal verification process, you can only have one address associated to your account at a time, so people won't be lurking in several random neighborhoods. In addition to the main news feed where you can see your neighbors' posts, there are tabs for local events and groups. It's basically a more geography-based Facebook, minus any random friend requests. If you want to start meeting people but aren't completely onboard with the idea of using an app just yet, Nextdoor can be a nice place to get started in seeing in how being online can make it easier to connect with people IRL.

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