Friendster
Shares rank 11 of 31 social networks by recommenders
People like the phone-tap friend-adding idea and the fast, clean app, but critics say tapping limits it to people who meet in person.
People like the phone-tap friend-adding idea and the fast, clean app, but critics say tapping limits it to people who meet in person.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 26
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Phone-tap friend adding idea
“The tap-to-connect constraint makes this work. Every social network removes friction; this one keeps it on purpose. Won't scale to billions, but maybe that's the point.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “I think the tapping phones feature -- for initial friend creation, not upkeep -- is THE killer feature of the app.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “I love the idea of using phone proximity as the only way to add friends.”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” - Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It”
Fast, clean, simple app
“It's an absolute bliss to see such a clean UI and no nonsense.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “app is snappy and solid. missing a "invite friends" link”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “I just signed up and it’s super fast.”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” Promising idea worth watching
“Friendster sounds like a great idea for a platform to take this on.”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “LinkedIn scans for 6,278 extensions and encrypts the results into every request” “I can definitely see the potential”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “an attempt in the right direction”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Tapping phones limits who you add
“Tapping phones seems very limiting. I don't see most of my friends in person that often, different cities etc.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “OkCupid didn't require people to tap their phones together in order to be able to chat in the app.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “Good idea but not practical for me as my friends and family are widely dispersed.”
Comment from 23 Apr 2026 in “Friendster Relaunch” - Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It”
Owner's motives and value questioned
“this alternative is 90% likely going to be a rugpull on "nice cosy 90s style social network" by systemic factors”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “instead of throwing significant amount in pet project that will likely not bring anything novel to humanity”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “this vibecoded chatgpt crap is quite clearly an attempt at making Friendster more valuable than 30k”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” - Comment from 29 May 2026 in “GitHub bans security researcher who posted zero-day Windows exploits”
- Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Friendster Relaunch”
iPhone or Apple account required
“it should not be normalized that you have to have an iPhone to join a social network”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “There's no way I'd choose an app like this with which I can only talk to iOS friends”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “We can't seem to be able to login from the website, it requires an Apple account?”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” - Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It”
Other social networks people recommend
The four most recommended other social networks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky | 317 | 401 | 44% | 12 | 1 yr5 owners | — |
| 289 | 1,338 | 18% | 13 | 14 yrs42 owners | — | |
| Mastodon | 273 | 220 | 55% | 12 | 3 yrs12 owners | — |
| X (formerly Twitter) | 264 | 984 | 21% | 13 | 13 yrs13 owners | — |
| FriendsterThis page | 26 | 26 | 50% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 58 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“remember Friendster, MySpace, LiveJournal, AO3, etc.?”
“Friendster execs were too busy patting themselves on the back and flying around on private jets”
“Maybe Friendster has the right idea.”
“Friendster sounds like a great idea for a platform to take this on.”
“I can definitely see the potential”
“There's no way I'd choose an app like this with which I can only talk to iOS friends”
“filters out 90% of the people who'd actually use a social network”
“having to tap phones is cool and all but not a great measure of the strength of friendship”
“I value a storied post history pre-dead internet and it may be your best investment yet.”
“He’s doing something. It’s interesting. There’s no scam.”
“an attempt in the right direction”
“this vibecoded chatgpt crap is quite clearly an attempt at making Friendster more valuable than 30k”
“if it has any success, it will become the same crap we already have”
“instead of throwing significant amount in pet project that will likely not bring anything novel to humanity”
“OkCupid didn't require people to tap their phones together in order to be able to chat in the app.”
“will become an annoying chore that one should be able to opt out of”
“It's an absolute bliss to see such a clean UI and no nonsense.”
“it should not be normalized that you have to have an iPhone to join a social network”
“I love the idea generally of creating a social network that's meant to not suck, but the whole tapping phones thing is bad”
“Tapping phones seems very limiting. I don't see most of my friends in person that often, different cities etc.”
“I can’t help but be skeptical of the claims for no ads / no data selling lasting -forever-.”
“I think the tapping phones feature -- for initial friend creation, not upkeep -- is THE killer feature of the app.”
“Now add a new app to download (iPhone only), a new social network to register”
“The type of network you are building does not work that way”
“Love the app, I've already had some photos shared with me!”
“Could almost see myself using a web app version of this for kicks.”
“this alternative is 90% likely going to be a rugpull on "nice cosy 90s style social network" by systemic factors”
“The tap-to-connect constraint makes this work. Every social network removes friction; this one keeps it on purpose. Won't scale to billions, but maybe that's the point.”
“Wow, the phone tap requirement, love it!”
“app is snappy and solid. missing a "invite friends" link”
“it doesn't seem to work for me and my wife - we hold the phones together but clicking start does nothing”
“I just signed up and it’s super fast.”
“I love the idea of using phone proximity as the only way to add friends.”
“We can't seem to be able to login from the website, it requires an Apple account?”
“thanks to Friendster I was able to locate her in a city of over 8MM people”
“They only have a good domain with plenty of nostalgia, and that's it!”
“what can we actually do with it other than look at our social graph?”
“It can't be worse than what we have now.”
“Good idea but not practical for me as my friends and family are widely dispersed.”
“apparently their problem was the servers only worked half the time”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.