From dating to friendships: when loneliness dictates the rules of the digital marketplace

The friendship algorithm

And this is where the new stars of the digital landscape enter the scene: apps for making friends. This is not just a trend, but a response to a real need, and the market is fragmenting into increasingly specialised niches.

Timeleft, for example, organises evenings for diverse groups in over 250 cities in 55 countries. No swipe, zero pressure: just dinner between strangers, potential future friends. Users fill out a personality test and are matched by affinity, completely eliminating the aesthetic component typical of dating apps.

Similar is the mechanism of Tablo, set up to organise open outings for anyone who wants to participate. A meeting in the dark, but based on shared interests. The app also offers thematic tables - from favourite team to favourite singer - to create fertile ground for spontaneous conversation.

Bumble For Friends adapts Bumble's swipe mechanism to platonic friendships. Created by the same team as the dating app of the same name, it focuses on bringing together people who have specific common interests, such as women who have young children, people who like specific genres of music, and so on. The platform includes Plans, a function for organising group meet-ups or discovering local events.

Also emerging on the international scene are Patook, a 'strictly platonic' friend-making app, and Wink and Yubo, specifically designed for friend-making. Meetup, with over 60 million users and 12 million monthly visits in 179 countries, remains a reference: it connects people through live events, based on shared passions - from technology to fitness, from books to start-ups. Other apps focus on the convivial experience, such as The Breakfast, which organises breakfasts between strangers with potential affinities.

These apps address a primary need that dating apps, focused on finding a partner, have neglected: building a solid social network. Even Bumble has stated that it wants to "rethink the company's vision" by focusing on the BFF product after the collapse of the dating segment. Even the industry giants have realised that the paradigm is changing.

What doesn't add up

The friendship algorithm is far from perfect. This was well described by Allie Volpe in Vox, after testing apps such as Bumble For Friends and Timeleft in an attempt to create new connections. While she found the more relaxed and human group dinner format useful, she also experienced the more sterile side of the platforms: 'You can make dozens of matches, but if they remain idle chatter, real friendship never comes. Conversations get stuck, people disappear, and it often takes an active effort to turn intention into relationship'.

An experience that reveals how even when the goal is not love but friendship, a click is not enough to feel less lonely. A reflection that recalls the words of psychiatrist Eugenio Borgna, in his book Sull'amicizia (On Friendship): 'Friendship has the power to vivify life, it is a source of joy and an opportunity for dialogue'. A reflection that sounds like a warning to a generation that grew up with the promise that every human feeling could be algorithmised.