Friend-making apps have been popping up a lot lately, but more and more are focusing specifically on finding genuine friends rather than dating or marriage activities. As adults, it’s hard to find friends with similar hobbies, and many people start even in their 40s or 50s. I’m curious about whether they’re free to use, if there are really users looking for friends, and how safe the platforms are.

When I looked into various friend-making apps, I found that many are women-only. Favomatch specializes in finding friends for supporting favorite hobbies, allowing searches by genre or day off, making it easier to find like-minded people. Touch is also women-only and has 24-hour monitoring for high safety. Dote Match is similarly focused on women-to-women friendship searches. Its timeline feature allows interaction similar to social media.

For those wanting to make male or opposite-sex friends, Bumble’s “BFF Mode” is convenient. It’s inexpensive and allows searching for friends of both the same and opposite sex. Tantan is free for men to send messages and has a global user base, so there are many international users.

For people in their 30s, 40s, or 50s, Somli is tailored for mature adults, allowing searches by weekend availability or whether they have children, making it easier to find suitable matches. Tipsys has over 300,000 women users and offers group chat features for multi-person interactions.

JOIN US is for people who want to meet someone to drink with immediately through party matching. GolWho specializes in finding golf buddies. Tinder is known for dating, but since it allows same-sex searches, it can also be used for making friends. Its global availability is a strong point.

When choosing a friend-making app, key points include whether it’s women-only or includes men, if there’s 24-hour monitoring, whether you can search by day off or hobbies, and whether most users are genuinely looking to make friends. It’s also important to consider how much the free features allow you to do. The app you choose depends on your age and what kind of friends you’re looking for, so first, it’s best to clarify your own purpose.