3 phone apps to help you make friends in Denmark
While your chances of a friendship meet-cute with a Dane in the wild are always fairly low, the online friendship market in Denmark is booming as recent transplants and long-time locals alike swipe to build their post-pandemic social network.
Between constant remote work and the sometimes unapproachable coolness of Danes (so blonde! so tall! so stylish!), it can be tricky for newcomers to strike up a friendship the old-fashioned way. What's a lonely telecommuter to do? Lurk next to the rye bread at the grocery store and blurt out invitations for platonic coffee dates? Lob flødebolle into passing bike baskets until someone stops to share one with you??
Friendship apps – which, the data shows, are not only for 20-somethings – do the blurting for you. Every user is actively looking for friends, and it eliminates the risk of an embarrassing rejection – you're only connected if you both express interest in each other. Here are three apps that can help you find your people. (And no, this isn't sponsored in any way. We just don't want you to be lonely.)
BumbleBFF
BumbleBFF is platonic sister to Bumble, the dating app that famously only allows women to make the first move. Bumble BFF is far and away the top choice friendship app for internationals and the internationally-minded in Denmark, with more profiles in English than competing apps. Bumble's interface is easy to use and lets you set a target age range and location for prospective friends, as well as outline what you're looking for (an exercise pal, or a fellow parent hoping to set up playdates, a binge-watching bud, etc). Like a dating app, your profile is an elevator pitch on why you'd be a great friend – pop in a few pictures and answer a couple of their questions and you're ready to start swiping.
BumbleBFF currently only offers potential friends of the same gender as you, supposedly in an effort to reduce spammy romantic texts where they're not wanted (not sure that's effective for our queer friends, or where that leaves non-binary babes).
As on any app, some BumbleBff connections will inevitably fizzle out before you meet up in person (why be coy on a friendship app? Don't just say 'hej' and ghost) but persistence pays off on BumbleBFF.
READ MORE: An expat's guide to making friends with Danes
Hey!VINA
Hey!VINA is a friend-making app exclusively for women and fem-identifying people that seems to have a considerable following in the Copenhagen area. It's certainly not as slick as Bumble BFF (the app is glitchy and temperamental) and a lot of the questions are eye-roll worthy. There's serious "girlboss" energy, with questions like "Choose your #hair goals" and "What would you add to your vision board: an olympic medal, a balloon in the shape of the word "love," a pile of $1's, or a microphone."
But if you can stomach that, there are plenty of profiles to browse, most of them in Danish. Hey!VINA is also chock-full of features that are either new or that Danish users just aren't into, such as scheduled meet-ups (there's only one in the calendar for the Copenhagen area, and it's in September) and a "Party chat" where you're paired with people randomly for live chatting. Let us know if those work out for you.
However cumbersome the vessel, we're confident that Hey!VINA can introduce you to wonderful new friends in your area with shared interests.
READ MORE: How to make friends with expats in Denmark (and why that's okay)
Meetup
Our third app finally goes co-ed! Meetup, founded nearly 20 years ago, allows users to share open invitations to their community. There are plenty of thriving Meetup groups in the Copenhagen area based on networking, tea-tasting, mountain biking and niche cross-over events like "Drawing and ice cream." Meetups help diffuse the pressure of a one-on-one friend date, but you don't have any assurance that the people there are, indeed, after platonic connections only.
Before you make a bee line to the app store, take a minute to fill out our survey on how (and if!) you've made friends so far in Denmark. We'll use it to guide future articles.
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Between constant remote work and the sometimes unapproachable coolness of Danes (so blonde! so tall! so stylish!), it can be tricky for newcomers to strike up a friendship the old-fashioned way. What's a lonely telecommuter to do? Lurk next to the rye bread at the grocery store and blurt out invitations for platonic coffee dates? Lob flødebolle into passing bike baskets until someone stops to share one with you??
Friendship apps – which, the data shows, are not only for 20-somethings – do the blurting for you. Every user is actively looking for friends, and it eliminates the risk of an embarrassing rejection – you're only connected if you both express interest in each other. Here are three apps that can help you find your people. (And no, this isn't sponsored in any way. We just don't want you to be lonely.)
BumbleBFF
BumbleBFF is platonic sister to Bumble, the dating app that famously only allows women to make the first move. Bumble BFF is far and away the top choice friendship app for internationals and the internationally-minded in Denmark, with more profiles in English than competing apps. Bumble's interface is easy to use and lets you set a target age range and location for prospective friends, as well as outline what you're looking for (an exercise pal, or a fellow parent hoping to set up playdates, a binge-watching bud, etc). Like a dating app, your profile is an elevator pitch on why you'd be a great friend – pop in a few pictures and answer a couple of their questions and you're ready to start swiping.
BumbleBFF currently only offers potential friends of the same gender as you, supposedly in an effort to reduce spammy romantic texts where they're not wanted (not sure that's effective for our queer friends, or where that leaves non-binary babes).
As on any app, some BumbleBff connections will inevitably fizzle out before you meet up in person (why be coy on a friendship app? Don't just say 'hej' and ghost) but persistence pays off on BumbleBFF.
READ MORE: An expat's guide to making friends with Danes
Hey!VINA
Hey!VINA is a friend-making app exclusively for women and fem-identifying people that seems to have a considerable following in the Copenhagen area. It's certainly not as slick as Bumble BFF (the app is glitchy and temperamental) and a lot of the questions are eye-roll worthy. There's serious "girlboss" energy, with questions like "Choose your #hair goals" and "What would you add to your vision board: an olympic medal, a balloon in the shape of the word "love," a pile of $1's, or a microphone."
But if you can stomach that, there are plenty of profiles to browse, most of them in Danish. Hey!VINA is also chock-full of features that are either new or that Danish users just aren't into, such as scheduled meet-ups (there's only one in the calendar for the Copenhagen area, and it's in September) and a "Party chat" where you're paired with people randomly for live chatting. Let us know if those work out for you.
However cumbersome the vessel, we're confident that Hey!VINA can introduce you to wonderful new friends in your area with shared interests.
READ MORE: How to make friends with expats in Denmark (and why that's okay)
Meetup
Our third app finally goes co-ed! Meetup, founded nearly 20 years ago, allows users to share open invitations to their community. There are plenty of thriving Meetup groups in the Copenhagen area based on networking, tea-tasting, mountain biking and niche cross-over events like "Drawing and ice cream." Meetups help diffuse the pressure of a one-on-one friend date, but you don't have any assurance that the people there are, indeed, after platonic connections only.
Before you make a bee line to the app store, take a minute to fill out our survey on how (and if!) you've made friends so far in Denmark. We'll use it to guide future articles.
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