The bad news, no app will just hand you the social life of your dreams. The good news, it is an effort game. The game of life, starts with yourself.
But the right tools make it a lot easier to keep, find and build the right relationships. Below are eight of them. Some keep your family and old friends close. One helps you to go through the awkward stages. Some bring new people to your table. And one brings it all together.
The rule for all of them is the same. Use them as tools and then put the phone away.
Picture a Sunday evening
Sunday, 21:00. You scroll back through the family group chat. Your mum sent a photo of the garden on Tuesday. Nobody answered.
Further down, an old friend from university wrote we should catch up soon three weeks ago. You both meant it. Neither of you picked a date.
Meanwhile the city outside is full of people who want exactly what you want. A tennis partner on Thursday. Someone to cook for on a Monday. A table that saves you a seat for the next game night. Just someone who is seeking true genuine connection.
Nobody is the problem here. For most of our history, togetherness wasn't scheduled. The bar on the corner. The sports club. The square where the market packed up on a Saturday. You just showed up and always knew someone who knew someone. Today most of us have to build that on purpose. That takes effort (sucks, I know).
Plenty of distractions are built to keep you scrolling.
We are not against phones nor against social media. Not at all. We are against algorithms and habits that never let you leave. So every tool on this list had to pass one test: how quickly does it put you in a room with someone or can give someone the feeling that you are if you can not be there.
A good social tool works like the ladder up to a treehouse. You use it to climb up. Then you just belong.
We believe in taking care of your own circle first. Then comes the someone-who-knows-someone principle. And then you expand your circle. Not the other way around.
Family first
Start with the people you already have. They're the ones who knew your name before you arrived on earth.
1. Famories
Famories turns family news into a private family podcast and magazine. You record a voice note about your week, add a few photos, and your family listens whenever they like.
Grandparents can follow along even without a smartphone: the stories also arrive as a printed family magazine. And if you don't know where to start, the app suggests questions.
If you are like me and struggle to properly engage your family into your daily life, you should definitely try this.
Keep your friends engaged
Friendships rarely end with a fight. They fade between visits. These tools keep the thread alive until the next evening together.
2. 8PM
8PM is a social network built in Europe that does one thing differently. You post during the day, and everything your friends shared goes live together at 20:00. No algorithm. No endless feed. You see what your people did today, then close the app. It's invite-only for now.
The perfect way to keep up with the life of the people you actually care about.
3. Retro
Retro is a weekly photo journal you share with a small circle. You pick a few photos from your camera roll, and your friends see your week. No influencers, no public like counts, no algorithmic feed. It was built by former Instagram teammates who missed when social media was just about friends.
There's one nice rule: you share at least one photo a week to see what your friends shared. Give a little, get a little. And if a photo deserves more than a screen, the app prints it and mails it as a postcard (legendary feature).
4. Splash
Splash bundles the party games you've probably seen on TikTok into one app, starting with Who's the Impostor? Everyone gets a secret word except one person, who has to bluff their way through. Three to twelve players, one phone passed around the room.
Try this. Play one round before dinner. Nothing breaks the ice faster than catching your friend or someone new lying. Absolute game changer.
5. We're Not Really Strangers
We're Not Really Strangers is a card game with questions that go deeper level by level, from first impressions to the things you'd never say over text. Put it on the table after dinner and watch the small talk end.
Try this. Bring it to the next family lunch or dinner with friends. You'll learn something about people you thought you knew.
Build your social skills
6. fredie
fredie treats social skills like a language you can practise. Its Berlin founder, Lili Vogelsang, calls it a Duolingo for social skills. Short lessons, then small exercises for real life: small talk without pretending, saying no and still being liked, stopping the overthinking before it stops you, letting a conversation go deeper.
The app was developed together with psychologists in eight chapters take you from self-confidence to small talk to setting boundaries, in about five minutes a day. Great stuff, try it out.
Meet new people
Sometimes the right person isn't in anyone's contacts yet. These formats give strangers a simple reason to sit down together. A meal, a time, a place.
7. Meet-up concepts
You don't need a big event to meet someone new. Just a simple format that repeats. One meal, one coffee, one loop through the park. A few we like:
- The Offline Club. Your phone checks into a phone hotel at the door. Then an hour to yourself, reading, drawing or journaling, and an hour to connect with the people around you. Started in Amsterdam, now with chapters in Germany. Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne.
- Founders Court. For the founders among you. Founders Court is Germany's biggest founder x padel community. You apply or get recommended by a member. Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Mallorca.
- CreativeMornings. Breakfast and a short talk, one Friday morning a month. Free and open to anyone, run by local volunteers. Munich, Cologne.
- Spazierclub. Not the next run club, a walking club instead. Every Sunday the opportunity to meet new people. Berlin, with spin-offs in other german cities.
Bringing it all together
The best people in your life probably didn't come from a stranger. They came through a friend. Someone who knows someone...
8. Treehouze
Yes, this one is ours. We'll keep it short.
Treehouze lives where you already communicate, in WhatsApp and iMessage. Tell it what or whom you're looking for. A padel partner at your level. People in your city who like art. Your next co-founder. It moves through the people you trust into the worlds of the people they trust, and makes a warm introduction, with a reason to meet.
No likes. Nothing to compare against. No feed. Just the right person, and time and a place.
It keeps the people already in your life close, and it opens the door to the people they know. Your family, your friends and the strangers who are about to become friends, all in one place.
If that sounds interesting for you, join our waitlist
Pro tip
Still can't get off your phone? Screen time just won't come down? These two help.
- Brick. Brick is a small magnetic puck with no battery. You pick the apps to block, tap your phone on it to lock them, and tap it again to unlock. Stick it on the fridge, and getting back to Instagram means walking across the room.
- Amba. Same idea, smaller price. With Amba, your chosen apps stay shut, and only a tap on a small physical tag opens them again. It costs 1 €. According to Amba, active users get back 91 minutes a day on average. That's a dinner with friends, every single day.
The social life of your dreams was never in an app, these tools are only the entry point back in the real world and its about time.
Go play outside.