Find Your Friends on the social web

Every gift expands a privacy-first app to connect millions with real friends online safely

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Find Your Friends on the social web

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The Fediverse is better with your people in it. Let's help you find them!

The hardest part of joining a new social network isn't learning how it works, it's feeling connected. Research shows that people feel happiest on social platforms when they have meaningful ties.

The broader social web has no built-in way to find the people you already know. There are lots of strategies for power users, but we want to bring the millions of new users who show up a privacy-first way to find their friends and affinity groups.

Find My Friends on the Social Web is a privacy-first Android app that cross-references your contacts with Gravatar using only hashed data, so your contacts never leave your phone to find which of your friends and family already have accounts on the social web. That's it! You can then follow them with one tap.
No central server. No data collection.

This project is led by Evan Prodromou — co-author of ActivityPub, the open standard that powers Mastodon, Pixelfed, and the entire Fediverse. Evan is Research Director at the Social Web Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the open social web. The core flow has already been prototyped and tested. We're ready to build.

Every dollar goes directly toward:
  • A product designer crafting a simple, welcoming experience
  • An Android developer building and testing the app
  • A project manager coordinating with Mastodon, Gravatar (Automattic), and the social web developer community.

You can make a difference by donating today to the Social Web Foundation via its fiscal host, Exchange Point (EXP). The Exchange Point's mission is supporting transformative technology that serves the public interest in achieving social justice. EXP is a 501c3 with programing dedicated to open and interoperable internet, web and emerging technology in the public interest. Its projects include: Free Our Feeds (now Modal Foundation), A New Social and the Social Web Foundation -- all of these are working to grow open, healthy, and sustainable social networks. EXP also supports the Internet Exchange -- a weekly newsletter publication about internet standards and human rights.

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Exchange Point Institute
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