Register
The evidence gap in consumer connection products
A class of commercial application now markets itself explicitly against loneliness, and is increasingly cited in policy-adjacent discussion. This is a register of that class: what each product claims to do, and what has been measured about it.
12
products in the register
0
evaluated against a validated loneliness instrument
0
randomised trials, controlled cohorts or pre-registered evaluations
| Product | Stated mechanism | Repeated contact | Availability | Outcome evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 222 | Places the user in a small group at a booked venue | No | LA, under-28s | None published |
| Buffet | Places the user in a small group at a booked venue | Not by design | Los Angeles | None published |
| Bumble BFF | Matches the user with one other person | No | Worldwide | None published |
| Eventbrite | Lists or hosts events; makes no introduction | No | Worldwide | None published |
| Hinge | Matches the user with one other person | No | Worldwide | None published |
| Luma | Lists or hosts events; makes no introduction | Not by design | Worldwide | None published |
| Meetup | Organises repeated meetings around an interest | By design | Worldwide | None published |
| Nextdoor | Connects the user to a verified local area | Not by design | Worldwide | None published |
| Partiful | Lists or hosts events; makes no introduction | No | Worldwide | None published |
| Peanut | Matches the user with one other person | Not by design | Worldwide | None published |
| Pie | Places the user in a small group at a booked venue | Not by design | 5 cities | None published |
| Timeleft | Places the user in a small group at a booked venue | No | Many cities | None published |
What would change these rows
A defensible evaluation of any product in this table would need a validated loneliness instrument at baseline and a pre-specified follow-up; a comparison condition, for which waitlist randomisation is already feasible because these products routinely operate waitlists in supply-constrained cities; a measurement window that extends past the single meeting, since the mechanism being claimed is repeated contact; intention-to-treat analysis, because attrition here is likely to be substantial and non-random; and pre-registration, absent which an operator-funded evaluation of its own product carries little weight.
Until then the accurate description of this class is: growing quickly, mechanism plausible, scale self-reported, effect unmeasured. That supports listing these products as an emerging category worth studying. It does not support citing them as evidence that loneliness is being addressed.