Social Apps for Keeping Friends?

Social discovery apps and the industry is all about finding new connections and friends. But what about after? When you have made new friends, how can you ensure you keep those connections alive? The data and studies showing the benefits strong friendships have to our health and wellbeing are endless, so maintaining friendships is just as important as finding new ones. Catchup is a new app that is hoping to make this easier. 

Built by Chris Lee, head of design at Spig, Catchup is the app that hopes to make keeping up with your friends a lot easier. In an interview with TechCrunch, Lee said:

“I have friends and family who live elsewhere. I’d find that months and even years would go by without us talking. It wasn’t that I don’t value them — these people matter to me dearly — but I realised that I don’t naturally remember to stay in touch. And among others I know, I’ve seen this seemingly tactical issue cause drifts or even conflicts in friendships.”

Currently available on iOS, catchup lets you set up friends you want to be reminded to keep in touch with. You let the app know how often you want to check in on that friend and family, and when the time comes, the app reminds you to do so. You can let the app know you have checked-in and keep a track over the months and years. The free version does this for two friends, but a one off $8 / £7.99 payment unlocks notifications, and a home screen widget for an unlimited number of contacts. 
The app is launching after a successful beta testing with 2,000 users. It is so easy to let some friendships slide, apps that help give us a little nudge could be very powerful. Lee added

“I feel like the original purpose of a lot of the technology we use today — phones, smartphones, the internet — is to connect with people. But it seems to me that while we have lots of ways to communicate with people, our technology hasn’t really helped us develop the habit of doing so with depth. So that’s my intention with the app. I think of it as social technology, but in a way that’s completely different from traditional ‘social media.’”

It’s an interesting branch of the social discovery tree. It can take a lot of effort to find and make new friends – it’s perhaps more important to make sure once we have established them, we keep nurturing them too.