Friend-making apps have really increased over the past few years, I feel. There are quite a few needs for genuinely wanting friends, not for romance, and wanting to connect with people who share the same hobbies. Especially when becoming a working adult, it becomes harder to make new friends, and it seems many people in their 40s and 50s are also using these apps.

However, when actually trying to use them, you might worry about things like "Is it really safe?", "Is it okay to use for free?", "Are there really people whose purpose is to make friends?" and so on. So, I actually compared 15 popular friend-finding apps. I examined safety, free features, ease of use, women-oriented options, male fees, and various other points.

The top is Favomatch. It specializes in finding friends for supporting your favorite idols, and it's convenient that you can search by idol support style and holidays. Since it's limited to women, it's perfect for making same-sex friends. The second, Touch, is also women-only, emphasizing safety with identity verification and 24-hour monitoring. The third, Dotomatch, is also women-oriented, with timeline features and a social media-like feel.

If you want to make friends of the opposite sex, Bumble's BFF mode is interesting. The male fee is also relatively low, and there are many foreign users. Tantan, originating from China, is global, so you can also make friends with foreigners. For those aiming for people in their 30s and above, Somli might be good; it's geared toward middle-aged users and has a rich search function.

Many apps are free to use, which is a nice point. However, most require payment to remove ads or unlock certain features. For safety, it's recommended to choose apps with 24-hour monitoring and reporting functions. When choosing an app, the important points are "Is it dedicated to making friends?" and "Are the users' purposes aligned?" I think these are key.