Everything we know about the Tinder for friendships
If you’re like me, you aren’t in the dating game and you have a hard time making friends outside the Internet (I love you Internet friends!). The combination can be frustrating, trust me, I know. Well fellow busy Internet-cave-dwellers with a need for in-person socialization, today is our lucky day because Friendish is on the horizon.
Friendish, in a nutshell, is an amalgamation of Tinder and Meetup, combining all the benefits of meeting in-person friends who share mutual interests with the easy swiping concept of 2015’s most popular dating app. On Friendish, users can swipe on an assortment of cards labeled with various interests. From here, they’ll be shown potential friends who have a high percentage of mutual interests. At this point, these users can view each other and choose to “Get Friendish” or add each other and start up a conversation. Users can also filter down to a maximum distance radius, choose to view more interests in related categories, shuffle the deck, and more.
What’s even cooler? The app – whose mission statement is, “Friendish is committed to helping people of all ages (18+) and backgrounds make genuine friendships with people they share common interests with” – was founded by two women: CEO Chandra Arthur and Chief Design Officer Michelle Kacerosky.
“I created Friendish because I’ve found it really hard to make real, genuine connections with people in general,” Arthur tells HelloGiggles. “Popular dating apps, while awesome for some people, can be pretty shallow in that they ask you to make an instant judgment based on someone’s face – which is obviously not enough to know if you’d get along. Social norms have also changed in friend-making. People are afraid to say hello, and everyone is called thirsty for making an effort, so it’s hard – especially in your 20s and 30s when everyone has limited time, thanks to real-life obligations.”
For people who are in the dating game and feel too much pressure for the dating-exclusive apps, Friendish can also be an option for finding a romantic connection.
“It’s no secret that some of the best romantic relationships are built on solid friendships,” notes Kacerosky, adding that the company is currently raising money and open to adding a few positions with the proper backing and traction. “So while the main goal of the app is to help people connect offline and do activities they enjoy together, there is a strong possibility people who meet through Friendish will really like each other and begin to develop closer relationships from there.”
We love all of this. Sure, we can use the Internet to find people we share common interests with, but finding them in our areas is a whole other story – especially on the go in our busy lives. If we can alleviate the awkwardness of fishing for commonalities when we come in contact with new people, why wouldn’t we – especially if the power to do so is right in the palm of our hands? Sign us up!
Arthur and her team are shooting for an early-2016 launch of Friendish, but you can sign up to be a beta tester in the meantime (space is limited) and expect to start swiping soon! Be sure to follow the app’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for the latest updates.
Related reading:
Tinder didn’t work for me—until I started Tindering with my besties
What I learned from my week-long addiction to Tinder
(Image via Chandra Arthur and Michelle Kacerosky / Friendishapp.com)
