We have apps for dating, networking, sharing photos, finding dinner and even tracking how many steps we take each day. But what about finding someone you might actually want to be friends with?
That is the question behind Zeeen, a new Australian-developed social discovery platform that uses technology to help people find potential real-world connections nearby.
Think of it as the digital equivalent of spotting someone at your local cafe wearing the same band T-shirt as you, discovering they also have a dog, run regularly and support the same footy team – except you get the useful information before having to awkwardly strike up the conversation.
Zeeen is designed to help people identify others in their wider area who share interests and common ground, then decide for themselves whether they want to connect.
And it is gaining traction quickly. A pilot attracted more than 3,000 registered users within weeks, with Australia now accounting for around 84 per cent of active users. Brisbane currently makes up 55 per cent of those users, followed by Sydney at 15 per cent and Melbourne at 14 per cent.
The Zeeen concept (co-founded by Jakob Parker-Smith, David Parker-Smith and Justin Mackay below) came from Jakob’s own experience.
After moving from New Zealand to Australia, Parker-Smith found himself surrounded by people but without an obvious way to work out who he might actually have something in common with.
That is where technology came in.
“Social media makes it incredibly easy to connect with someone on the other side of the world, yet we can know almost nothing about the person living three doors away, working in the same building or sitting beside us at a café,” says Parker-Smith.
Zeeen takes some of the mechanics we already know from social apps – profiles, interests and digital discovery – and flips the purpose.
Instead of helping you follow people you already know or consume an endless stream of content, it is designed to help you discover people you don’t know yet.
And crucially, it is not a dating app.
The platform focuses on friendship, community, networking and social discovery rather than romantic matching, followers or content feeds.
It also does not put users on a live map. People control their visibility, the information they share and whether they interact with someone they discover.
The technology is essentially doing the awkward bit first: giving you a reason to say hello.
“If you can see that somebody nearby also runs, has a dog, follows the same sport or shares another interest, they no longer feel like a complete stranger but someone who is genuinely like-minded,” Parker-Smith says.
There is some fascinating data behind the idea, too.
Around one in three active Zeeen users have verifiably crossed paths with another live user. Analysis of user behaviour also found that profiles viewed by users shared 58.8 per cent of interests, compared with 35.1 per cent expected by chance.
In other words, there may already be plenty of people in our orbit who we would get along with. We just have no idea who they are.
That is becoming increasingly relevant as our social lives move further online.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 17 per cent of Australians aged 15 and over reported often feeling very lonely in 2023 – around one in six people. Separate Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data found 49 per cent of Australian adults in 2024 felt isolated from others either often or some of the time.
At the same time, the way we work, travel and communicate has changed. More than one in three employed Australians usually worked from home in August 2025, while Australia recorded around 568,000 migrant arrivals in 2024-25.
For anyone who has moved cities, relocated from overseas, started working remotely or simply found themselves outside their established friendship group, meeting new people as an adult can be surprisingly difficult.
Brisbane psychotherapist Sarah Buckle says technology can play a role in helping people overcome some of the barriers around that first interaction.
“Connection, belonging and safety are basic human needs, but the way we live has changed enormously,” she says.
“The desire for connection has not disappeared, but there are more gaps people have to bridge to achieve it.”
And that may explain why a friendship app feels strangely relevant right now.
We have become very good at using technology to maintain relationships. We message friends, send voice notes, share TikToks and know what someone had for breakfast from their Instagram Story.
But technology has been less successful at answering a much simpler question: Who should I meet?
Zeeen is attempting to fill that gap without turning real-life friendship into another swipe-based exercise.
“A lot of people want connection but the hardest part is often the first interaction,” says Parker-Smith.
“If technology can establish that somebody nearby is open to connection and that you already share some common ground, it can lower the barrier without removing the human part of the experience.”
That distinction is important.
The app is not trying to become the destination. It is trying to get you off the app.
And perhaps that is the most interesting tech-lifestyle idea here. After years of technology helping us connect with more people, Zeeen is using technology to help us work out which of those people we might actually want to meet in person.
Because sometimes the person you have been looking for isn’t on the other side of the world. They might be sitting three tables away.
