Tech Insight : Friendship Tech : From Novelty To Necessity

In this Tech Insight, we look at how a new generation of digital platforms and community initiatives is rising to meet the growing UK demand for meaningful friendship, tackling loneliness through apps, events, and innovative social design that prioritises connection over dating.

A Growing Demand (And Rising Cost)

Loneliness in the UK is no longer just a personal struggle, but is now a public health issue. For example, according to the government’s 2023–24 Community Life Survey, around 3.1 million people in England report feeling lonely  “often or always.”  The Office for National Statistics puts the broader figure closer to 1 in 4 adults when occasional loneliness is included.

It seems that young people are among the most affected. Adults aged 16–24 are consistently more likely to report high levels of loneliness than any other age group. The same is true for people living in deprived areas, those with disabilities, and individuals whose gender identity differs from their sex registered at birth.

In health terms, the consequences are serious. For example, prolonged loneliness has been linked to increased risk of heart disease, depression, cognitive decline, and even early death. In fact, former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called loneliness  “a greater threat to health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.”

Why now?

Several factors have created new urgency, and opportunity, for digital tools focused on friendship, such as:

– Post-pandemic social gaps. Covid disrupted many people’s social routines. Friendships thinned out, and some never recovered.

-Life transitions. Moving for work, returning from university, post-divorce, all create social disconnection.

– Dating app fatigue. Many younger users are burned out by ghosting, mismatched intentions, or pressure in romantic spaces.

– Desire for real-world connection. There’s growing appetite for platforms that lead to shared experiences, not just online chat.

– Social infrastructure decline. Pubs, churches, clubs, and libraries aren’t what they were. New tools are stepping in to fill the gap.

Friendship-First Apps Gaining Ground

This growing demand has meant that several new and emerging apps are now tackling platonic connection head-on, with different approaches to solving the problem. Examples of these include:

Clyx

London-based, launched in 2023, and aimed directly at building real-life friendships. It scrapes event listings (from Ticketmaster, TikTok and others), then lets users see who’s attending and suggests potential matches based on shared interests. The app recently raised $14 million and is gaining traction with young adults looking for local events and new faces.

Gofrendly

This has a growing UK user base, especially among women. It focuses on interest matching, local discovery, and verified profiles to encourage safe, meaningful friendships, not dating. It’s one of the more community-led platforms in this space.

Bumble BFF

A mode within the main Bumble app that lets users connect platonically. Benefits from scale and user familiarity, but some users still report confusion about intentions, as the app straddles both friendship and romance.

Peanut

Originally created for new mums, Peanut now supports women across life stages, including those navigating menopause or fertility. It blends interest-based communities with discussion boards, making it a more supportive and topic-led experience.

Patook

This app is strictly platonic, with rules that penalise flirtation. It’s aimed at people who want clarity about the nature of their connections.

Hey! VINA

Marketed as  “Tinder for girlfriends,”  this app is designed to help women find new female friends, often during life transitions or moves to new cities.

Friender

A more traditional matching app that connects users based on shared activities, from walking to photography.

Timeleft

Focuses on time-based group meetups, e.g. 7 strangers meeting at 7pm. Aims to reduce the awkwardness of one-to-one planning.

Wyzr Friends, Les Amís, Pie, Meet5, BFF

Other platforms with varying levels of UK presence. Many focus on events or interest groups, but success often depends on having enough users in each area.

vTime XR

A UK-developed app offering avatar-based conversations in shared 3D virtual spaces. This is an example of more experimental social design, perhaps appealing to more tech-savvy users.

Other Ways To Connect Digitally

Obviously, not all digital friendship-building happens on dedicated apps. For example, some people find new friends in forums, comment sections, local Facebook or WhatsApp groups. Others use platforms like Reddit, Discord or Meetup to join interest-based spaces that lead to real-world interaction.

These alternatives may lack the structure of a matching app, but often feel more organic, and have the advantage of existing community momentum.

UK Initiatives Tackling Loneliness

It should be noted that the UK also has a growing number of non-app projects that support social connection in different ways. A few that stand out include:

The Chatty Café Scheme

This encourages cafés to offer  “chatter and natter”  tables where anyone can sit down and talk. Over 600 UK venues have taken part. Low effort, high impact.

The Lonely Girls Club

A UK-based organisation helping women make friends. It runs walks, brunches and local meetups in cities including London, Manchester and Brighton. Over 145,000 members and growing.

Do It and local volunteering schemes

Volunteering is a tried-and-tested way to build friendships. Sites like Do It help people find causes to support locally, often leading to lasting connections.

NSPCC’s Building Connections

This pairs young people with trained volunteers via text chat to help tackle loneliness in under-19s. It’s a structured, supported approach that’s designed to build trust gradually.

Silver Line

A free helpline for older people who feel lonely or isolated. Offers conversation, advice, and links to services.

Social prescribing

GPs and healthcare providers can now regularly refer patients to non-medical services, like walking clubs or creative groups, to help combat isolation. It’s a growing part of NHS practice.

The Gaps

Even with momentum, it seems that friendship apps and digital schemes face some difficult challenges. These include:

– User density. Many platforms only work well in big cities. In smaller towns, there just aren’t enough local users.

– Safety and moderation. Users want reassurance that people are who they say they are, and that harassment will be taken seriously.

– Drop-off after first contact. Even if a match is made, many connections fizzle out. Apps that don’t lead to real interaction risk compounding the loneliness they aim to solve.

– Unrealistic promises. No app can guarantee friendship. When expectations aren’t met, users may feel worse, not better.

– Privacy and data. Platforms must be careful not to over-collect personal data, or create social graphs that users wouldn’t want shared.

Where Businesses Fit In

Friendship isn’t just a personal issue. For example, loneliness affects productivity, mental health and team cohesion. With this in mind, ways in which forward-thinking employers are starting to act include:

– Social clubs and interest groups. Walking, running, book clubs and other low-stakes gatherings can help staff connect.

– Peer matching. Pairing employees for coffee chats, especially across departments, builds new bonds.

– Sponsored meetups. Subsidised lunches, away days, and wellbeing events give employees time and space to talk outside of work tasks.

– Coworking support. Remote staff can be encouraged to work from shared hubs once a week, keeping them socially active.

– Onboarding support. Helping new joiners build a social network, especially those who’ve moved, reduces early drop-off and increases engagement.

– Leadership by example. When senior staff take part in informal social activities, others follow.

Helping people build friendships at work isn’t just “nice to have”, but can also be very good business. For example, when people feel seen, included and socially healthy, they stay longer, perform better, and support others more effectively.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The rise of friendship apps and local initiatives reflects a growing effort to redesign how people find and build social connection in everyday life. It seems that these tools are no longer fringe or experimental but are now part of a wider ecosystem responding to a social problem that governments, charities, employers and individuals all recognise. For some users, these platforms offer a lifeline out of isolation. For others, they may simply provide a way to expand social circles, build support networks or feel more rooted in a new place.

That said, the picture is far from complete. For example, many of the tools gaining attention still rely on user density, active moderation and effective onboarding to work well. Without enough people nearby, or a clear route from match to meeting, the experience can quickly disappoint. Also, while digital platforms play an important role, they cannot replace the value of shared activity, physical presence or community familiarity that real-world connection offers.

That’s why non-app initiatives remain essential. For example, programmes like the Chatty Café Scheme or The Lonely Girls Club don’t just reduce friction, they change norms. They make conversation with strangers feel less unusual and give people permission to reach out without awkwardness. These models, grounded in familiarity and low-pressure interaction, can succeed in ways algorithms sometimes cannot.

For UK businesses, this raises new questions. Employers have become more focused on wellbeing in recent years, but friendship and social support often remain under-addressed. A lonely employee may not present as unwell, but over time the impact can be felt in engagement, collaboration and retention. That means employers are not just well-placed to help, they may be expected to. Practical steps like encouraging interest-based groups, supporting social meetups and offering flexible coworking options are not just soft benefits, but they are investments in team cohesion and long-term workforce resilience.

Policymakers will also need to think carefully. While loneliness is now recognised at a national level, digital inclusion, funding for local groups and access to social infrastructure will all shape how far these efforts reach. That includes ensuring these tools and spaces are safe, accessible and open to all, regardless of postcode, age, ability or income.

Ultimately, friendship is hard to manufacture but easy to overlook. What this growing sector of tools, platforms and initiatives reveals is that the need is clear, the demand is growing, and the routes to connection must be many, not just digital, but human, local and shared.