JUST FRIENDS

Christina Gonzales rates the friendliest apps she has tried.

★★★★ I’d be active on this. ★★★ Definitely worth a try. ★★ It could get better with time. ★ Wouldn’t recommend it.

HEy! VINa ★★★★

For networking one-on-one: You may not meet your perfect bestie right away, but the range of women here is vast, matching is easy and you’ll learn something new with every person you meet.

MEET My Dog ★★★★

For the doggy lovers: This app is more about your dog and less about you. (Each dog has its own profile and photo.) Connect with owners of other pups nearby and meet for a doggy date.

gIRlcREw ★★★★

For those opposed to apps: GirlCrew is a Facebook group with chapters in over 40 cities, from Canada to Europe to Asia. Request to join your city’s local GirlCrew group on Facebook, where members arrange dates ranging from nights out on the town to book clubs and career seminars.

BUMBlEBFF ★★★

For finding “your people”: You’re likely to find third-degree acquaintances on this app thanks to its Facebook connection. It can take a while to match, but when you do, relationships often flourish because matches are high-quality— it’s easy to see if you have similar interests.

galpal ★★★

For those who like group outings: This new Canadian app’s community managers organize group meetings each week. All you have to do is show up. Keep in mind that Galpal is only in the soft-launch stage, which means that the volume of women is slim and it’ll take a few months for it to rev up.

TINDER SocIal ★★

For the singletons: If you’re going out with a group of friends who are on Tinder, you can activate Tinder Social and it matches your group with other groups of singletons. The downside? Even though you can opt to only use Tinder Social when you download the app, it could be tricky to explain it to your significant other.

BVDDy ★★

For those who love to be active: Meet fellow snowboarders, runners, ultimate-Frisbee players or other sports lovers who want to get moving with a friend. (Keep in mind that this is a co-ed app.) Unfortunately, Bvddy has seen slow growth in Canada and isn’t in most of our cities yet.

paTook ★

For those looking to spend platonic time with both guys and girls: Patook’s founders built an automatic “flirt detector” into its algorithm, meaning messages deemed too flirty might not get delivered. The downside is potential friends seem to be too far away or in different life stages.