How to Make New Friends in a New City

Making new friends in a new city as an adult is not easy. 

When we were younger it was so much more convenient because we had built-in friends with our cousins, we met people at school, during our extracurricular activities, and more.

However, as an adult making “true” friends takes a lot more effort since we don’t always have these built-in networks. From my experience, it can even be challenging to figure out where to meet friends. So where does that leave us?

Well, I have some experience in this area since I moved to Dallas five years ago and knew no one. These are some of the things that helped me make friends from scratch.

Facebook Groups

I recommend searching for Facebook Groups in your area or based on your interests. Finding groups in your area makes it easier to learn about different activities going on and instantly connects you with potential people you can attend with. It can sometimes be challenging to go to places by yourself so this helps with that.

When you look for groups based on your interest (i.e. fitness, calligraphy, blogging), you know for certain you have something in common with the group members so you can just write a post to see who is local to your area and schedule a meetup. This is such a great way to meet new people and maybe make a friend or two. 

One of my closest friends and I met in a Facebook group by InfluenceHer. It all started when I posted a post about meeting other aspiring influencers located in the Dallas area and the rest is history. We bonded over a similar interest and decided to meet in person at Bird Bakery in Dallas. 

List of different Facebook groups
Local Facebook Groups

Initially, we just hung out to shoot content and try restaurants, but over time we developed true friendship. Now we’re at the point where we can’t see our lives without each other. We have leaned on each other as we navigated different seasons of changing jobs, getting married, dealing with breakups, and more. 

BumbleBFF

Most people know Bumble as a dating app, but they also have a BumbleBFF feature available for women that helps them to make friends in a new city. I used this app and I made a great friend through my experience. 

BumbleBFF is similar to the Bumble date option. You create an amazing profile about yourself, your interests, and what you’re looking for in a friend. Then you get to swiping on individuals that match your interest. In my experience, it is good to chat for a little bit and then propose an activity that you are both interested in to get your conversation out of the chat.

These activities can be: 

  • A walk/hike
  • Brunch
  • A Pottery class
  • A Candle-making class

The list can go on.

This shows them menu on the Bumble App with BumbleBFF selected
Make friends with BumbleBFF

I have met a decent amount of people from the app and had so many fun outings. If you meet a person, you see as a potential friend remember friendships don’t happen overnight. You have to be intentional so make sure to keep in contact and schedule hangouts to see if it can turn into a long-term friendship. 


Eventbrite

Eventbrite features a lot of free and paid events in your area. I tend to find a lot of free fitness events in my area that I like to attend. However, you can find a range of activities from networking events to candle-making classes and everything in between. These are my tips to maximize Eventbrite to find the best events for yourself.

Ironically enough, when I connected with my friend for the first time on Bumble I recommended we attend a free fitness event in Dallas to get to know each other. While at this fitness event, we ended up meeting another girl who we clicked with which led to our girl group. 

At these events, there are always people that come by themselves so it’s easy to spark a conversation. An easy conversation starter I use is “Have you come to an event like this before? and keep the conversation going from there. 

A picture of a black woman doing a yoga pose
Yoga Class from Eventbrite

Meetup

The Meetup app has local groups based on your interests. It is a great way to connect with like-minded individuals and attend different events. 

I like this app because it makes it easy to meet new people as all the groups have pre-planned activities that you can attend so you don’t have to figure out logistics on your own. When you find a group you like, I would suggest attending numerous events so people can get familiar with your face and you can develop friendships that way.

These are the 5 platforms that helped me to make new friends in a new city. My favorite platform is BumbleBFF because I like the 1-1 interactions that you get to have.

Which of these have worked for you?