Final evening, at greater than 1,600 eating places in 325-plus cities across the globe, roughly 20,000 individuals gathered for dinner with full strangers. It’s what the creator of Timeleft—a French app that has been arranging impromptu dinner dates amongst strangers everywhere in the world for the previous 12 months and a half—sees as a small however helpful contribution to the struggle in opposition to international loneliness.
“If you wish to meet new individuals, Timeleft is the proper strategy to do it,” mentioned cofounder and CEO Maxime Barbier, a 40-year-old French tech entrepreneur.
Utilizing know-how to carry individuals collectively and facilitate friendships comes with a little bit of irony, contemplating the position that know-how (particularly social media and all method of supply apps) has performed in weakening social ties and impromptu interactions.
However IRL social apps like Timeleft have seen appreciable uptake—and investor curiosity. They embody Partiful, the “Eventbrite for Gen Z” invitation app that raised $20 million in 2022; Posh, the self-proclaimed TikTok for occasions, which boasts 2 million customers and $22 million in latest funding; and 222, which hyperlinks up customers for native occasions after they take an internet persona quiz. As well as, extra regional teams, like California’s Groundfloor and England’s Lonely Girls Club, have helped strangers join in individual.
“The last word incentive for tech firms has been getting us hooked on the tech,” mentioned Erin Peavey, an architect and professional on loneliness and design for social connection. “What I really like about this suite of apps is that this give attention to getting individuals collectively off the app.”

The proof of our lack of connection, particularly within the U.S., paints a reasonably damning image. One-third of adults over 50 report feeling lonely or remoted. Gen Z has been referred to as “the loneliest generation.” Many males are in what one researcher calls a “friendship recession” and lack even a single shut pal. Former Surgeon Common Vivek Murthy told the nation in 2023 that it faces a “loneliness epidemic.”
The deterioration of in-person interplay, decline in third locations for socialization, and rise in loneliness explains partly why health teams, from Crossfit to the bevy of operating golf equipment that grew out of the pandemic, grew to become such key elements of many Individuals’ social lives lately.
“Run teams, which began out organically, are actually full-fledged, attracting 1000’s of individuals in sure cities,” mentioned Anthony Vennare of e-newsletter Fitt Insider. “It’s actually, actually grassroots, natural hanging out.”
This present wave of social apps additionally fills that void. And maybe extra importantly, by arranging group occasions, it permits its customers to keep away from the sensation of rejection, frequent to relationship apps, that may end result from one-on-one interactions, mentioned Peavey.

Apps and on-line networks that got down to domesticate real-world communities aren’t new. Meetup, a social media platform for internet hosting and organizing occasions that launched in 2002, rose to prominence within the early 2010s, hitting 25 million customers at its peak, then regularly misplaced customers earlier than being offered to WeWork in 2017. Courting web site Bumble launched its personal BFF service in 2016 to attach customers with pals of the identical gender. And health apps have created methods for individuals to attach by way of bodily train, like Strava for cyclists.
What units Timeleft, which has garnered vital media consideration, and comparable apps aside could also be their simplicity. Barbier settled on the idea in Lisbon, Portugal, in Might 2023 after different concepts for the app didn’t pan out, like a strategy to share bucket lists amongst pals. The components was easy: teams work, strangers work, and meals is a typical denominator. Remove photos and swiping and simply get individuals collectively.

Doing one factor properly is essential, he mentioned; in any other case, even good tech struggles to carry collectively completely different individuals doing completely different actions at mutually handy occasions. And internet hosting each Wednesday appeared like the suitable cadence; Barbier discovered the American idiom “hump day” amusing.
“I used to be speaking to a competitor, who was discussing success by way of day by day lively customers,” he mentioned. “I assumed that was unusual, as a result of I don’t discuss day by day lively customers. I don’t care if individuals use my app. My finish objective is what number of individuals attend the dinner. The app is barely a strategy to go to the offline factor.”
Diners buy a ticket for dinner for $16 (subscriptions for a number of dates can be found), then fill out an in-app survey that helps match them and create a bunch of six. Barbier mentioned teams are organized to be inside 10 years of age and have a balanced mixture of women and men, and introverts and extroverts. The algorithm, which final 12 months ingested information from virtually half one million diners, additionally avoids seating a bunch that every one wish to discuss politics.
On the Tuesday earlier than dinner, customers get despatched a short introduction. On Wednesday, diners present up, order, socialize, and pay for their very own meals. In the event that they’re having fun with the evening, they will then transfer to a second bar location, the place completely different Timeleft teams congregate.
The app has obtained constructive opinions from customers throughout the globe, and domestically, from Los Angeles to D.C. Regardless of beginning in Europe, Barbier says New York Metropolis is the most important location for the app, with crowds of 300-plus exhibiting as much as the bar occasions. Now Timeleft boasts 70 full-time workers overseeing operations in 65 nations and 325 cities. One is the chief know-how officer, who Barbier met at an early dinner. Roughly 60% of customers come again for one more dinner the subsequent month.

“Individuals are craving to be seen, to be heard,” Barbier mentioned. “While you go for a dinner with strangers, you possibly can actually discuss every part you need. Surprisingly sufficient, nobody’s gonna actually decide you.”
The cash, and social curiosity, in these apps has led to a lot of completely different methods for progress. Posh, an app that hosts occasions, works with occasion promoters and seeks to draw digital creators and podcasters to host their very own occasions on the platform. Barbier believes Timeleft has house for continued growth—dinners open in India and Vietnam subsequent month. Within the coming weeks, it should roll out an in-app messaging device in order that individuals who hit it off at dinner can join and organize further meetups.
“I imagine Timeleft could make a dent,” he mentioned. “Each pattern, like AI and social media, is making [connection] so laborious. However I do imagine know-how must be used to assist clear up loneliness, as a result of persons are so into know-how. First, we have to catch them on-line.”