We built this because we missed our friends.
For three years, six of us wrote to each other every day. At least 500 words, about anything — work frustrations, parenting failures, half-formed ideas, the stuff you don't post anywhere. We'd read each other's entries and respond. Sometimes in-depth, sometimes just “yeah, I get it.”
Those years taught us something: you can maintain deep friendships across continents and time zones. But you need a place for it. Not a group chat where everything gets buried. Not social media where you're performing for an audience. A private space for real thoughts.
Then life got in the way. Kids, promotions, moves. The practice died. Not dramatically — it just... faded. And with it, something essential.
Socii exists to give that feeling back. Not just for us, but for anyone who takes friendship seriously.
The friendship recession is real.
Men with six or more close friends: 55% in 1990, 27% in 2021.Men with zero close friends: 3% in 1990, 15% in 2021.Five times more men today have nobody to call at 2am.
It's not because we care less. It's because maintaining friendships requires 50+ hours to build trust and consistent contact to keep it. 100 days without real conversation and close friendships start to degrade. The 30s and 40s — careers, kids, moves — are the hardest years to find those hours.
WhatsApp groups turn into meme dumps. Instagram becomes a highlights reel. “We should catch up” becomes a genre of lie we all tell. Nobody built a tool that actually helps.
What we believe
Privacy isn't a feature. It's the foundation.
Real vulnerability requires real privacy. Everything you write is end-to-end encrypted. We can't read it. Not “we promise not to.” We literally cannot. No ads, no data selling, no algorithmic curation. You pay for the service; the service works for you.
Depth beats breadth every time.
No likes, no follower counts, no viral mechanics. The average Socii user has 8-12 connections. That's intentional. We don't want you collecting contacts; we want you staying close to people you already love.
The app should do the work.
Initiating is hard. “Thinking of you” texts feel awkward. Planning hangs takes 47 messages. We built tools that handle the friction — prompts, reminders, easy gathering planning — so you can focus on the actual connection.
Your attention is yours.
No dark patterns. No streaks that punish you for having a life. No notifications designed to create anxiety. We succeed when you have better friendships, not when you spend more time staring at screens.
Who we are
Small team. Self-funded. Based in Europe. We're not trying to become the next billion-user platform. We're building something useful for people like us.
We're in our 30s and 40s, scattered across cities, trying to maintain the friendships that made us who we are. We built what we needed. Turns out others needed it too.
If this resonates, you might be our kind of person.