Hoop - Make new friends

Review by eFreeware

If your social circle feels fixed and you would like to widen it beyond the people you already know, Hoop is built for exactly that. It is a free social app for meeting new people, either in your own country or worldwide, and the developer describes it as an easy way to make friends across the globe. The idea is straightforward: you look through profiles, send requests to the ones that interest you, and then connect on the social platforms you already use.

What appeals to me here is the emphasis on keeping control of your own accounts. The app is designed so that you decide which social profiles you share and with whom, rather than handing over a fixed set of links. For anyone who wants to meet people but is wary of exposing every account they own, that framing makes sense.

It is a free download with ads and in-app purchases, and it has been on Google Play since May 2019, with an update in December 2025. The install base is large, over 10 million, and the average rating sits at 4.0 from more than 427,000 ratings. That combination suggests a busy, well-populated place to browse rather than a small experimental network.

A fit for socially curious users

The people most likely to get value from Hoop are those who enjoy browsing and initiating contact rather than waiting to be approached. If you are comfortable sending the first message and starting conversations with strangers, the browse-and-request model will feel natural. It also suits anyone whose existing apps feel too closed off, since the point is discovery across a much wider pool of people.

It is less about deep matching algorithms and more about volume and initiative. You scroll through profiles, decide who looks interesting, and act. That means the experience depends heavily on how much effort you put into it and how willing you are to keep going through profiles until you find people you want to talk to.

Because the app connects you to your other social accounts, it works best for someone who already has an active presence elsewhere and wants a way to find new people to add there. If your social life lives entirely inside one platform and you are happy with that, the appeal is narrower.

Browsing profiles at home or abroad

The core of Hoop is exploration. You can go through profiles from your own country or open things up to the whole world, which gives you a choice between local connections and international ones. The developer mentions millions of profiles, so the pool is intended to be large enough that you are not running out of people to look at quickly.

When you find someone you like, you send a friend request. If it is accepted, the next step is adding each other on your social apps, which is where the actual conversation happens. Hoop positions itself as the introduction layer rather than the place you chat long term.

Control over sharing is part of the design. You decide which of your social accounts to hand over and to whom, so the app is not forcing a full profile dump on anyone you connect with. That is a sensible approach for a service built around meeting strangers.

Diamonds and how they work

Hoop runs on a currency called diamonds. They let you send friend requests, revisit a skipped profile, and edit your own profile. So the currency is tied to the main actions in the app rather than being a cosmetic extra.

Diamonds can be earned in several ways. There is a daily check-in, rewards for leveling up, and the option to watch a video. Sharing your profile also earns diamonds, and the developer notes that this reward is doubled on Sundays, which gives a small weekly incentive to promote your profile then.

If you would rather not wait to accumulate them, you can buy a pack of diamonds. That is the in-app purchase element. The app is free to download and supported by ads, so between the ads and the optional diamond packs there are two ways the service is monetized.

What it costs and what that means

It contains ads and offers in-app purchases in the form of diamond packs. The diamond system is the mechanism through which any spending happens.

The practical effect is that you can use the app without paying, earning diamonds through daily activity, videos, leveling up and profile sharing. Buying packs is an alternative for people who want more requests or customization without the wait. How far the free earning pace stretches is something each user will judge for themselves.

The presence of ads is worth factoring in if you are sensitive to them, since this is an ad-supported app. The 4.0 average from a large number of ratings suggests most users find the trade-off acceptable, though averages never tell the whole story for any individual.

How it compares with other options

The closest alternatives are other social discovery apps that also focus on meeting new people, as well as the built-in friend-finding features of the major social platforms. Those built-in tools tend to work within one network, while Hoop is designed to bridge several by letting you add people on your social apps after a request is accepted.

Another category worth weighing is interest-based communities, where you meet people around a shared hobby or topic rather than through profile browsing. Those can produce more context for conversation, whereas Hoop leaves the opening line to you. Which approach suits you depends on whether you prefer browsing or a shared activity as the starting point.

Hoop's model is different: the app is free, and packs are available for those who want more. That structure is friendlier to casual users than a hard paywall.

A practical choice for meeting new people

The combination of local and worldwide browsing, control over what you share, and a currency you can earn without paying makes it accessible.

It is best suited to socially proactive users who do not mind ads and who see diamond packs as optional rather than necessary. If you prefer structured matching or interest-based communities, the browse-and-request format may feel less guided, but for anyone who likes exploring profiles and starting conversations, it offers a large pool to work with.

What's new in version 6.9.0

Hey! 🙂 We have improved the overall performances and fixed some bugs