Making friends as an adult is harder than it seems. School's over, work doesn't always lead to social interaction, and moving to a new city wipes out your social circle all at once. It's in this context that friendship apps make sense: they solve the logistical problem of finding people with similar interests.
This guide brings together what actually exists in Play Store A Brazilian app for this purpose, with data verified in the store, explains what changes from one app to another and outlines the security precautions — which also apply when the goal is just to chat.
How apps help create connections
The functionality is always the same: profile, filters, and a list of registered users. The difference lies in the interaction format — direct chat, live streaming, topic-based groups, or slow message exchange.
It's important to adjust expectations: the app shows who has registered in that region, and nothing more. Some profiles have been inactive for months, which explains why many conversations go unanswered. This is normal on any platform of this kind.
Apps for making friends
Bumble BFF
It's the friendship mode within Bumble — not a separate app. You switch your profile to BFF mode and only see people who are also looking for friendship, eliminating the most common misconception about this type of app.
Bumble has a 4.4 rating and over 1.5 million reviews on the Play Store, offering photo verification and in-app video calling. It's the most reliable option on the list for those seeking a partnership with mature security tools.
Slowly
The most unique option on the list: Slowly simulates the exchange of letters. Messages take hours or days to arrive, depending on the distance between the people. This changes the type of conversation—instead of an immediate response, longer and more thoughtful texts are offered.
It has a 4.7 rating and over 170,000 reviews. It's excellent for those who want to practice languages and learn about different cultures, and terrible for those in a hurry. It's rated 18+ in the store.
MeetMe
It mixes chat, live streaming, and games, giving it more of a social network feel than a dating app. Rated 3.9 with over 1.6 million reviews, rated 18+.
Because it's quite open, this is where out-of-context contact appears most often. Configure your profile to only receive messages from people you follow, if the app allows it, and use the reporting feature without hesitation.
purp
Focused on meeting people from other countries and exchanging cultures, it has a 4.0 rating and over 128,000 reviews. It works well for those who want to converse in another language without the formality of a study app.
Yubo
Well-known for its live streaming rooms, with a 4.5 rating and over 400,000 reviews. An important warning: it's an app with a strong presence among young users and is rated 18+ on the Play Store.
This means two things. If you're an adult, pay extra attention to the age of the person on the other end and end any conversation involving minors. If the app is for a teenage family member, supervision needs to be real, not just formal.
What these apps don't do
They don't make friends for you and they don't guarantee a date. They don't check backgrounds or robustly confirm age — most only ask for a date of birth on the registration form, which anyone can intentionally mistype.
There are also no people waiting to chat. What exists is a database of profiles, and the paid plan only provides more visibility within that database—it never creates users where they don't already exist.
Safety in friendship apps
Don't send money to people you haven't met in person. The friendship scam exists and works just like the romantic scam: weeks of conversation followed by an emergency. It applies to PIX (Brazilian instant payment system), mobile phone top-ups, gift cards, and any "investment opportunity.".
Do not share your phone number or link social media accounts in the first few days. With Instagram's @ handle, a stranger can reach your workplace and your family in minutes.
Turn off the precise distance display. Go to the settings and keep the conversation within the app until there is trust — that's where blocking and reporting options are available.
If you make plans to meet, Choose a public and busy place, go and come back on your own, and let someone know your location and expected return time.
Report it before blocking it. Blocking someone removes them from your field of vision; reporting them is what causes the platform to take down their profile for everyone.
How a friendship forms — and where the app comes in.
It's worth being honest about what the tool can do. Adult friendships are usually based on three ingredients: repetition (meeting the same person multiple times, without each meeting needing to be arranged from scratch), shared context (a subject, a place, or an activity that exists independently of the two of you) and Time without a purpose., which is the opposite of productive conversation.
The app delivers the initial contact and nothing more. That's why so many lively conversations die by the third week: they never gained repetition or context. Conversion happens when the chat becomes a recurring commitment—a weekly game, a book club, a workout at the same time, a scheduled call on Sunday. It doesn't need to be grand; it just needs to have a recurring date.
A practical consequence: instead of bringing up a new topic every day, suggest an activity with a set time early on, even if it's online. If the other person agrees twice in a row, a friendship is forming. If they never agree, what you have is just screen time—which is also legitimate, as long as you know which of the two is happening.
Virtual gifts and in-app currency: how these apps make money
In live-streaming friendship apps, the money doesn't come from subscriptions: it comes from a gifting economy. You buy coins within the app, convert those coins into virtual items, and send them to the person who is streaming. The recipient gets a cut, and the platform gets the rest—and this division explains the entire screen layout.
Knowing this, three behaviors cease to be a mystery: the ranking of who gave the most gifts is intentionally visible, because it transforms generosity into competition; those who broadcast naturally ask for gifts, since it's their income; and the app pushes notifications whenever someone you follow goes live, because idle attention doesn't generate revenue.
Two specific precautions. Internal currency is consumable purchaseOnce spent, refunds are the exception, not the rule. And the card registered to the store makes purchases with a single tap, which makes this type of app the champion of unexpected charges on cell phones used by teenagers. Both systems allow requiring a password or fingerprint for each purchase and requesting approval from a guardian—a two-minute adjustment that avoids unpleasant bills.
Live streaming: data, battery, and what gets recorded.
Watching a live stream is the most resource-intensive activity a social app can do to your phone. It combines continuous video downloads, a constantly on screen, and image processing—and, when you're the one streaming, it adds video uploading and camera use, which heats up the device and drains the battery faster than any game.
- On the mobile data plan, Half an hour of streaming consumes more data than an entire day of texting. If your data plan is limited, reserve live streaming for Wi-Fi and reduce the video quality whenever the app allows.
- Battery The signal drops noticeably, and the overheating causes the system to reduce performance. Streaming while the phone is charging worsens the overheating.
- Nothing that appears on camera is private. Any viewer can record the screen, and the platform keeps recordings for moderation. Treat the broadcast as something public and permanent.
- Look what's behind you. Before turning on the camera: a window identifying the street, a document on the table, a uniform with the company name, a child passing by in the background. That's how a seemingly harmless broadcast reveals an address and routine.
Friendship with people from another country: time zone, language, and automatic translation.
Many dating apps have an international audience, and that's one of the things they really do well. It just requires adjusting expectations in four areas.
- Time zone. A five- or ten-hour time difference means that one person always responds while sleeping. Setting a fixed window each week works better than trying to have a spontaneous conversation.
- Automatic translation. She gets the general meaning wrong, but errs precisely where friendship is built: irony, jokes, slang, and level of formality. Short, direct sentences convey much better than long periods.
- Difference in cultural interpretation. Message frequency, use of audio, and closeness in treatment vary considerably from country to country. Two days of silence may mean nothing.
- Money crosses borders and doesn't come back. International money transfers, cryptocurrency, and gift cards sent to someone in another country are, in practice, irreversible. Any request in this format ends the matter, no matter how good the friendship.
For those who want to practice the language, this is the best use of the category: written conversation, without haste, with mutual correction. The benefit is real and doesn't depend on any meeting.
From chat to the real world: why the group format is the safest.
When a conversation evolves into a meeting, the format matters more than the location. A group meeting—a game, an open class, an event with a set start and end time—has three advantages over coffee for two: there are people around, there's a ready-made topic of conversation, and there's a natural reason to leave whenever you want.
Add to that the basic, non-negotiable rules: you arrive and leave on your own, you don't accept rides from people you've just met, you keep your cell phone charged, and you don't give out your home address. And there's a specific rule of friendship that almost no one mentions: Don't go to someone's house, or receive them at your home, on the first date., even if the conversation lasts for months and the proposal is just to watch a game.
If the other person insists on changing the plans at the last minute—another place, later, without people around—canceling is a sufficient response. A friendship that starts with you feeling uncomfortable has already begun wrong.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to make real friends online?
It's possible, and more common than it seems. What separates those who succeed from those who don't is repetition: conversations that become recurring commitments survive; those that depend on a new topic every day do not.
Do I need to appear on camera to participate?
No. You can watch, comment via text, and participate in groups without ever turning on your camera. If an app pushes you to open your camera, that says more about its business model than about the community.
I bought coins and didn't receive what I expected. Is it possible to request a refund?
In-app purchases are rarely refunded. Refund requests must be made through the store where the purchase was made, with proof of purchase, and are more of a trial than a guarantee. It's best to buy in small quantities and check before buying again.
How can you tell the real age of the person on the other end?
It's impossible to be certain: most registration forms only ask for a typed date of birth. If in doubt—regarding vocabulary, school routine, schedules—end the conversation. Adults conversing with minors in this environment pose a risk that no context justifies.
Can my teenage son use these apps?
Several apps are rated for adults only because of the open chat and live streaming. If the family decides to allow any, use the parental control tools built into the system, ensuring the teenager is aware of their existence, and keep in-app purchases password-protected.
Conclusion
For friendships with clear rules, Bumble BFF. For long, unhurried conversations, Slowly. For cultural exchange, purp. MeetMe and Yubo are more open and require greater attention to privacy and the age of the person on the other end.
Choose one, write in their profile that you're looking for friendship, adjust their privacy settings before the first conversation, and don't send money to strangers. With that sorted, the rest is what it always was: find common ground and give it time.
Read too
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- Different Apps to Try: 5 Options and What They Do
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