Best Apps to Make Friends in London (2026): An Honest Guide

TL;DR: It depends how you like meeting people. Meetup suits established interest groups, Timeleft structured dinners, Bumble For Friends one-to-one matching, 222 curated experiences, and LetsLoop (that's us) free, spontaneous local plans. Most people do best combining two.

A quick note on honesty before we start: LetsLoop is our app, so we are not a neutral referee. We have tried to be genuinely fair here, including saying plainly where the other apps are better. Roundups that rank their own product first in every category are not much use to anyone, and London is big enough for all of these to be someone's right answer.

What is the best app for making friends in London?

There is no single best app, because the apps solve different problems. Some give you a recurring group built around an interest. Some engineer a dinner with strangers. Some match you with one person at a time. The right question is not "which app is best" but "how do I actually like meeting people?"

If you want a shortcut: pick one app that gives you a repeating fixture (a club, a regular dinner, a weekly game) and one that lets you say yes to something this week. Repetition is what turns strangers into familiar faces, and spontaneity is what stops your calendar sitting empty in the meantime. Our guide on turning a one-off meetup into a regular friend group goes deeper on why the repeat matters more than the first meeting. If you are weighing up Meetup specifically, see our guide to Meetup alternatives in London.

What is Meetup best for?

Meetup is best when you already know what you are into. It has been running since 2002 and has one of the deepest catalogues of established groups in London: hiking clubs, language exchanges, board-game nights, tech talks, book clubs, five-a-side. If a hobby exists, there is probably a London Meetup group for it.

Where it genuinely wins: depth and longevity. Many groups have run for years, with organisers who know how to welcome a first-timer, and events most weeks. That maturity is hard to beat.

Where it falls short: the experience varies a lot by group, some events are large and anonymous, and organisers pay to run groups, which means popular groups sometimes pass costs on as ticket prices or dues. Turning up to a 40-person event and speaking to nobody is a real risk. Pick smaller, recurring groups over big one-offs and it works much better.

What is Timeleft best for?

Timeleft is best if you want the decision made for you. You answer a personality questionnaire, and the app books you into a dinner with five strangers, classically on a Wednesday night. It operates in cities around the world, London included, and the format removes almost all of the awkwardness of organising: you just have to show up.

Where it genuinely wins: structure. A table of six is small enough that everyone talks, and the shared "we all signed up for this" framing breaks the ice fast. If open-ended socialising drains you, a fixed format with a start time and an end time is genuinely easier.

Where it falls short: it is paid (check the app for current prices, and food and drinks are on you), you do not choose who you meet, and keeping in touch after the dinner is left mostly to you. It is a very good first chapter that still needs you to write the second one.

What is Bumble For Friends best for?

Bumble For Friends is best if you prefer meeting one person at a time. Outside North America it works like a dating app without the dating: profiles, swiping, matching, then a chat that hopefully becomes a coffee (in North America it has moved to a new, group-focused BFF app). For people who find group settings overwhelming, one-to-one is a real advantage.

Where it genuinely wins: control and familiarity. You choose exactly who you talk to, the mechanics are instantly recognisable, and a one-to-one coffee is a low commitment first step.

Where it falls short: the same things that make dating apps tiring. Matches that never message, chats that never become plans, and the slightly odd feeling of interviewing for a friendship. It rewards people who are good at moving a chat to a real plan quickly. If that is you, it works.

What about 222?

222 sits between Timeleft and a members' club. You take a personality test, and it invites you to curated dinners and experiences with people it thinks you will click with. It launched in the US and now runs in London.

Where it genuinely wins: curation. The events are designed, the venues are chosen, and the matching aims for chemistry rather than just availability. When it lands, it feels less like an app and more like a good dinner party.

Where it falls short: you are opting into someone else's schedule and someone else's guest list, invites can be irregular, and it is a paid experience. It suits people who want quality over frequency.

Where does LetsLoop fit?

LetsLoop is ours, so read this section knowing that. It is built for the gap the apps above leave open: the ordinary, spontaneous stuff. A coffee on Saturday morning, a walk after work, volleyball in the park, a pub table with space for three more. On LetsLoop you post a plan (we call it a loop) or join one nearby, free, with real-name profiles and an optional selfie check.

Where we think it genuinely wins: spontaneity and locality. Free to use, no tickets, no algorithmically assigned dinner. Just real plans with real people in your bit of London, plus communities for the recurring stuff like run clubs and book crews.

Where we fall short today: we are new and London-first, so the feed is livelier in some neighbourhoods than others. Meetup has two decades of groups on us; Timeleft has a polished global format. If you want in early, download the app and you can see how it works here.

What if you want dates, not friends?

Then none of the above is really your app. Thursday closed its app in 2025 and now runs singles-only events in bars. It is not a friendship product, but its bet on in-person meetings over endless chat is the same bet most of the apps in this guide are making.

How do you actually turn any of these apps into real friends?

The app gets you in the room; the repeat gets you the friendship. Whichever you pick, the pattern that works is the same: choose something you would enjoy even if you made no friends at all, go to the same thing more than once, and be the person who suggests the next small plan.

Two of our guides cover this in practical detail: how to meet people in a new city without forcing it and how to make friends at 30 when everyone already has their people. The short version: consistency beats charisma, and the second invitation matters more than the first. For free options to try alongside an app, see free things to do in London this week.

Sources and further reading

TechCrunch's 2026 roundup of friendship apps is a useful neutral overview of the category: The best apps to make new friends right now. Each app's own site (linked above) is the source for current pricing and cities, which change often enough that you should check before signing up.