Top 5 Apps for Making New Friends in Uni (Android and iOS)

Making new friends online and through apps is an exciting prospect, within this blog we will be discussing the top 5 best ones to use whilst at university!  

Moving to university, into your plush new student accommodation is exciting. Of course, you’re a little sad that you’ll be leaving behind your best friends at home (or wherever they are moving away to study or to work) but you know that there are new friends to be made.  

You can always easily stay in touch with your friends at home by keeping tabs on them through TiKTok and Instagram, sending funny links to them on Twitter, regularly video calling them and just keeping the same relationship that you had back home. Things don’t need to change too much.  

How To Make Friends Online 

It is daunting to put yourself out there online, no matter what app you are using to make new friends.  

• Each app is unique – Every app has different features to help you make connections, but there are some staple tips that can help you to make new friends that stick when moving to a new town or city. 
• Be inquisitive – Always ask questions and show genuine interest in the person you are talking to. Take the time to get to know them and pay attention. Showing that you are an active listener is a great way to endear yourself to someone new and will help to build a real connection that could develop into friendship. 
• Make and stick to plans – Once you’ve made friends online or through one of the make new friends apps, it is important to follow through and be an active friend. Make plans and stick to them, ensuring that you do meet up with your new friends on a regular basis. Whether this is meeting a group of people once a week to do a pub quiz, or a new football team you’ve joined that plays on the same day every week, make the effort, and stick to plans. 
• Not everything will work out – Like everything in life, not every new connection you make through these apps will work out. You might find long-term friendships that last for years, others might be friends you have through university and then lose touch with. Some connections might not make it to the genuine friend stage at all. This is ok and to be expected. You can’t be friends with every new person you meet (it would be exhausting!) so be careful and realise what you can and can’t expect. 

There are some fantastic make new friends apps though. A chance to meet new people, find your people at university, either those who live in the same building as you, fellow students on your course, societies at university, or just locals in the new town or city you are moving to.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best make new friends apps around at the moment. 

1. Meetup 

Meetup has always been a great place to meet new friends, specifically meeting new people who have similar interests to you.  

One of the best ways to meet new people and to make new friends in any environment is to connect on a human level through shared interests. It is only natural that conversation turns to what you like when meeting someone for the first time.  

To make new friends through apps like Meetup you can take away a level of uncertainty at the very beginning, searching for those who like the same things as you.  

All you need to do is download the app from the Apple or Google Play stores, create an account, select the town or city you live in and the things that interest you.  

Whether it’s cooking, playing or watching sport, dog walking, or a range of other hobbies and interests, you’ll find meetups in your area to match your interests.  

Going out and physically meeting like-minded people in person is a fantastic way to make new friends in a new town.  

Meetup gives you the perfect opportunity to do so, with just a few connections on your smartphone! 

2. Bumble BFF 

Bumble has been one of the success stories of dating apps in the last decade.  

Originally it was designed as an antidote to Tinder. A dating app where if you were a woman, you had 24 hours to send a message to someone who had matched with you before the connection disappeared – instead of receiving countless messages into your inbox.

The same team has since decided to move into the field of make new friends apps.

Bumble BFF aims to make it easier for people to make new connections, to find new friends, and to “build a supportive community around them – no matter where they are.”  

It’s similar to the dating app, so if you have used that before you’ll be familiar with how it all works.  

Your potential matches are based on your activities and interests so be sure to fill out your profile as honestly as you can.  

In the BFF version of Bumble, anyone can make the first move and start chatting away.  

Have fun playing the game of Bumble like you do when swiping on dating apps but utilise its functionality to meet similar people to you and to make good friends at university. 

You can find the Bumble app on both Apple and Android devices.

3. Nextdoor 

A neighbourhood app that was primarily designed for homeowners and new people moving into areas to get to know the neighbourhood, Nextdoor has proved both useful and entertaining in bringing communities together.  

It is aimed at forging strong connections in an age where the old-fashioned community of helping your neighbours and knowing everyone on your street seems to have faded into the past.  

The app gives you chance to speak to and connect with people in your immediate neighbourhood, find information about part-time jobs, upcoming virtual car boot sales, as well as a platform to sell and buy items.  

You need to be verified to access content for your neighbourhood, which is a good security feature, and there are also some incredible bits of moaning from older folk on there – the best of which can be found on The Best of Nextdoor Twitter feed.

To get a flavour of what’s going on in your area away from student life, this is a good app to have in your back pocket. 

4. Slowly 

For something a little different and old-fashioned, the Slowly app takes the concept of a pen pal and brings it into the modern age.  

You can match with people through the app, connecting with people who share a similar passion as you, write them a letter and then have fun collecting stamps from around the world.

A fun, quirky feature on the app is that if you write a letter to someone who lives in Australia, they’ll receive it in the time it would take a real-life letter to reach them via post – it’ll take days from the UK!  

Instead of instant gratification, the app provides the slow connections that people used to make with pen pals from across the world.

Writing long letters and getting to know someone is really interesting, invigorating, and fruitful.

It’s quick and easy to find a match, but it takes time to develop a genuine friendship.  

It is certainly a different way of making new friends through apps! 

5. Discord 

Originally  a way for Twitch streamers and online gamers to connect with each other, you can now download the Discord app on both Apple and Android devices to reach a whole new community of friends.  

There are servers you can connect to that are based around specific podcasts, YouTubers, study groups, and subreddits, to name just a few. Whatever your interests you’ll find a channel and discussion to suit your interests.  

If you really hit it off with someone over a favourite book or TV show, or you find someone funny who shares links to things you enjoy, you can add them to your friend list and DM them.

If you can’t find a channel that really speaks to you, why not set one up?  

Discord is like one big interactive group chat. It can seem chaotic when you first join, but there is a lot to be said for making new friends through apps like these!

We hope you now feel at ease about forming friendships during your student years! 

Away from keeping in touch with your friends from home via social media and FaceTime, these apps are a fantastic way for you to meet new people and to make new friends when you first move to university.  

We’ve gone for a mixture of online, long-distance friendships such as the old school Slowly or the modern Discord.

As well as apps that aim to help you meet people face-to-face in person, whether that’s as part of a group activity or just for a cup of tea, a dinner, or drinks.  

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