The Rise of Friendship Apps

Once you have put your school and college days behind and started working, making new friends becomes difficult. To solve this problem, a number of ‘Tinder-like’ apps which help people make friends have cropped up.

1. Hey!VINA was launched in January this year. According to its launch statement, the app wants to enable adult women to make new friends with other women, based on their mutual friends, proximity and quiz data.

The app, which was founded by Olivia June Poole and Jen Aprahamian, makes its users take a quiz on their lifestyle and interests, after which they can start swiping.

Source: Popsugar

Poole told Huffington Post that she wants users to meet offline as soon as possible. The app will also suggest nearby activities for users based on their proximity and preferences. "Female friendships are absolutely essential,” Poole said. The app aims “to drive a philosophy of community over competition among women”.

2. Women-focused dating app, Bumble, recently launched its Bumble BFF feature. According to Huffington Post, 60 per cent of users who availed of this feature were women. The company told TechCrunch that one of the reasons it launched this feature is because users were already using Bumble to make friends as well for dating. Users had also requested the company to roll out such a feature.

Also Read: Bumble: The Dating App Where Women Take The Lead

3. Parooz, founded by former Google product manager, Shekhar Yadav, is one of the first few friendship apps in India. The app has a system wherein it scores each person for safety, according to their user activities. It is also partnering with popular hangouts and aims to create verified and fun social experiences for its users. By taking care of the offline experience as well, it eliminates some safety concerns users may have.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

In a world where everyone is caught up in a million different things, these kind of apps could make it easier to make friends. If dating is already online, why not friendship? Whether these new apps can foster deep and meaningful relationships is another question.

Also Read: Happy (Un) Friendship Day