Finding new Friends in 2026 : Friendship Feature Published Jan 2026

 

Finding Friendship: Your 2025 Resolution

Recently I wrote a feature about the quiet epidemic of ghosting in long-term friendships and shared my own story of being cut off by someone I considered a close friend for over thirty years. The response was overwhelming. Almost everyone has a ghosting story, whether it's a sudden cut-off or the softer 'Caspering,' where texts simply slow to nothing.

But as we step into 2026, none of us want to dwell on friendship endings, because there's another story emerging: more of us are actively pushing back and trying new ways to make and keep friends, often outside the conventional channels.

The first instinct after losing a friend is often withdrawal. I hear it constantly, and I've said it myself: "More dogs, less humans." Animals are loyal, uncomplicated, and reliably present. They don't ghost and rarely disappoint us. But as fantastic as pets are, they can't replace the growth that comes from human connection and true friendship. We learn empathy, resilience, and perspective through relationships with other people. Without them, our lives risk becoming narrower and less colourful.

The good news? Friendships later in life, or after fifty as in my case, can be built intentionally, through all sorts of new channels. We used to rely on circumstance: friendships formed at school and university, in our neighborhood, or at work. By midlife, when those circles shrink, you have to be more deliberate. The digital world has finally caught up with the need for genuine human connection.

Apps arranging dinner meet-ups among like-minded people are taking cities by storm, and they're the perfect antidote to bad dating apps. You get to meet people in person, and even if they aren't people you ever imagine seeing again, you've got out of the house and tried out a new restaurant at the very least!

Timeleft is the app everyone's talking about. Available now in Dublin and Cork, it matches you with five strangers for dinner every Wednesday night based on a personality quiz. The restaurant is a mystery until the night before, and you discover your fellow diners' industries and star signs (yes, they take astrology seriously!) 24 hours beforehand. The genius part? Everyone at that table chose to be there. No one's been dragged along by a well-meaning friend. Pricing varies by location but generally starts around €12.99, and then you split your own bill at the restaurant.

I've tried Timeleft in London a few times because, like dating apps, it's international, and once you have an account, you can use it in any city and you will never be stuck for choice because Timeleft operates in over 200 cities worldwide. Since launching in 2023 with just a handful of test dinners, it has gone from zero to 150,000 monthly participants by August 2025. Of course, dinner with strangers isn't for everyone, and as my closest friend said, it would be her 'worst nightmare,' but there's no denying, it’s slowly becoming a staple in how we connect with new people.

These meetup apps work because they remove a lot of the awkwardness. When you approach a stranger at a pub, you're interrupting their night. When you sit down at a Timeleft table, everyone's there for the same reason. The playing field is level, and the conversation flows more naturally as a result. Other "dinner with strangers" apps like 222, Strangrs, Eatwith and The Breakfast are only available if you travel to London and beyond.

Apps like Bumble BFF and Peanut (designed for mothers and pregnant women) have become lifelines for women navigating post-divorce, post-kids, or midlife transitions. Platforms like Meetup and Facebook groups are thriving in Ireland, offering everything from dawn sea swims to Wicklow hikes to book clubs. For men, fitness and gaming groups are proving popular, while in the UK apps like Wyzr (for the over-40s) and Stitch (for the over-50s) are showing real momentum. The appetite for tech-enabled companionship is clear: it's not strange anymore to swipe right on a potential friend.

Anyone who knows me knows how much my dogs mean to me. What I've also learned is how often they open the door to human connection. Training classes, dog meet-ups, and even casual chats on daily walks can lead to genuine friendships. Pets are an instant icebreaker.

The DSPCA runs courses like "Well Behaved Walkies" and other communication programmes, which are as much about human bonding as canine training. Sighthound Adventures Ireland hosts events for greyhound and lurcher owners, while Dogitude Breed Meet-Ups gather people with everything from Labradors and Huskies to Irish Terriers and French Bulldogs. There's even a Queer Canine group on Meetup. Apps like Fetchadate blend dating with dog ownership and as of this year, it's available in Ireland. So even if you never meet your soulmate, you'll meet a few fellow dog obsessives along the way.

If dogs aren't your thing, volunteering offers another powerful route into friendship. Try helping at festivals, joining local charity groups, or even picking up litter in your community. These shared commitments create bonds that are harder to fake and often cut through the small talk more quickly than other routes.

Another shift is happening in intergenerational friendships. We often limit ourselves to people our own age, maybe assuming younger friends wouldn't "get us" or older friends wouldn't keep up. In smaller towns especially, age boundaries can feel rigid. Thankfully social media is breaking those barriers.

A twenty-five-year-old friend can bring energy and fresh ideas; a sixty-year-old can offer grounding and perspective. Personally, I've been lucky enough to have both. One of my closest friends is more than fifteen years younger than me, and for the past decade I've shared countless cups of tea (and wisdom) with my elderly neighbour Rose, aged 91. Experts say this cross-pollination is one of the healthiest things we can do for our social lives. It broadens perspective, prevents us from becoming rigid in our views, and doubles the pool of potential friends.

Of course, making friends is one thing, keeping them is another. As friendship researchers Jeffrey Hall and Marisa Franco have pointed out, adults often underestimate the time investment required to grow a new bond. On average it takes around fifty hours of shared time to turn an acquaintance into a casual friend, and two hundred hours to create a close one.

As friendship coach Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky puts it, you have to "practice friendship." That means reaching out, showing up, and treating it as a priority. In a recent New York Times article about male friendships, experts were quoted suggesting a simple technique: TCS: Text weekly, call monthly, see quarterly. It might sound like a formula, but it works. The hack is to build regular events into your life so contact becomes automatic.

I know as I grow older and fill my house with rescue animals, I don't depend on human friendships the same way as before. But still the message is clear: we all need human connection, no matter how many pets we have. Friendship after forty or fifty is not only possible, it can be richer, more intentional, and more creative than before. Where ghosting once closed the door, new ways of meeting and keeping friends are opening windows everywhere.

Whether you choose dinner with strangers, dog meet-ups, or volunteering, the trick this year is to take the first step and keep going. Pets may still be loyal companions, but humans need other humans. We thrive on connection, reflection, and shared experience. The challenge is to embrace it, not run and hide from it.

So the next time you feel the sting of a lost friendship or wish you had someone to try the new restaurant down the street with, remind yourself that endings create space for beginnings. Midlife is not the closing of a circle, it's the widening of it.

Make 2025 the year of friendship. Your table is waiting!

Sara Colohan

RIP Rose 30/11/2025