🔵 Concept
Social Updated January 15, 2025

FriendLy

Calendar app for friendships that helps you maintain connections across distance and time

Feasibility:
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Excitement:
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Seriousness:
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The Problem

It's hard to maintain friendships, especially with distant friends. We lose touch not from lack of caring but lack of intentional scheduling and reminders.

The Story Behind This App

FriendLy comes from my struggle to make more of my friendships while battling my terrible time management skills and my own self-absorption. Not narcissistic self-absorption, but more of a pursuit of ideas and knowledge - a thirst and curiosity that often overrides my need to recharge the social battery.

This idea emerged after Nurture, part of a train of thought about improving our ability to maintain connections without relying on direct social media. It’s more of an inside-out social approach versus perceiving from the outside in. Instead of absorbing all your friends’ lives through an algorithm, this is about an algorithm helping you actively reach out to your friends.

I also believe (like my friend Todd) that you should run your personal life in some fashion like a successful business. Just as businesses have CRMs and scheduled touchpoints with clients, why shouldn’t we have tools to be intentional about our friendships? FriendLy isn’t about making relationships transactional - it’s about giving structure to good intentions that often get lost in the chaos of daily life.

Key Features

1. Friend Profiles

What: Rich profiles with history, interests, and last interactions

Why: Remember important details about each friendship

2. Smart Scheduling

What: Suggests optimal times to connect based on patterns

Why: Makes maintaining friendships effortless

3. Group Event Hosting

What: Create events with capacity limits and payment splitting

Why: Facilitates real-world gatherings

4. Distance Friend Alerts

What: Special reminders for friends you haven't seen recently

Why: Prevents friendships from fading

User Journey

  1. 1 User adds friends with location and preferences
  2. 2 App suggests regular check-in schedule
  3. 3 Creates group event with RSVP and payment info
  4. 4 Tracks attendance and friendship health
  5. 5 Alerts when friendships need attention

Technical Architecture

Frontend

React Native for mobile-first design

Backend

Express.js with GraphQL

Data

MongoDB for flexible friend data

APIs

  • Calendar sync (Google, Apple)
  • Payment processing (Stripe)
  • Location services

Hosting

Heroku with auto-scaling

Moonshot Features (v2.0)

  • ☐ AI conversation starters based on shared interests
  • ☐ Friendship health score algorithm
  • ☐ Virtual hangout integration
  • ☐ Memory book creation from interactions

Market Research

Similar to: Marco Polo, Slowly, Replika

Different because: Focus on scheduling and real-world meetups

Target users: Adults maintaining long-distance friendships

Open Questions

  • Privacy balance between features and data collection?
  • How to handle friend groups vs individual friendships?
  • Monetization without making friendship transactional?

Resources & Inspiration

Discussion