Monkey - make new friends

Review by eFreeware

Meeting people outside your existing circle is awkward in ways that text-based social apps rarely fix. A profile and a few messages can carry a conversation for a while, but they tell you very little about whether you actually enjoy talking to someone. Monkey takes the opposite approach: it puts live video at the center of the introduction, so the first real exchange is face to face rather than typed.

It is a free social app with in-app purchases and no ads, and it carries a Mature 17+ rating. On Google Play it has passed 10 million installs and holds a 3.8 average across 73,326 ratings, with the current build dated September 23, 2026 and the original release going back to April 2, 2018.

Swipeable cards as the front door

The main way to find people is a deck of Cards that you swipe through, adding the ones you want to keep in touch with. It is a familiar pattern for anyone who has used a dating or social discovery app, and it keeps the browsing step quick. The difference here is what sits on each card: a custom mood and a profile song that plays automatically when someone sees your profile, which gives you more to react to than a photo and a one-line bio.

That combination is the part I find most interesting. A mood and a song are small signals, but they say something about taste before either person has typed a word, and they give a natural opener. If you are the sort of person who finds icebreakers hard, having a track playing under your card does some of that work for you.

It also means the profile is doing double duty as a first impression and a conversation starter, which is a reasonable use of the format. The trade-off is that a card is still a shallow snapshot, and the app seems to treat it that way: the card is there to get you into a conversation, not to replace one.

Video chat is where the app lives

Once a connection is made, the app leans on live video. You can start a video call with someone new, which is a much faster way to work out whether you get along than trading messages for a week. The developer describes these as authentic conversations with cool people, and the format does push you toward something more real than a text thread allows.

Squad Chat extends the same idea to groups, letting you hold a group video call with your friends. That is a different job from meeting strangers: it is closer to hanging out with people you already know, and it makes the app useful for keeping a circle together rather than only expanding it. Text chat covers the rest, with direct messages for quick exchanges when a call is not practical.

Between the four pieces, the app covers the arc from discovery to conversation to staying in touch. What appeals to me is that each step has an obvious purpose rather than being bolted on, and video is treated as the default rather than an optional extra.

What you need before you start

There is not much to set up. You create a profile, give it a mood and a profile song if you want one, and then start swiping through Cards.

Because the app is built around live video rather than text, being willing to appear on camera is not a small detail. Someone who would rather type than talk will find the core of the app working against them.

The Mature 17+ rating is worth noting before you hand a device to a younger user. It is a signal about the audience the app is built for, and it sits alongside the fact that you are talking to strangers on video.

The people this fits

Monkey suits adults who want to widen their social circle and are comfortable doing it on camera. If you have moved to a new city, picked up a hobby that your existing friends do not share, or simply want to talk to people outside your usual group, a deck of cards plus a video call is a direct route to that. The group call feature also gives it a second life as a way to keep up with friends you already have.

The app is free with in-app purchases, so there is no barrier to trying the basics. The 3.8 average across a large number of ratings suggests a mixed but substantial audience rather than a niche one, and the steady updates since 2018 indicate a product that has been worked on rather than left alone.

Where I would be cautious is with anyone who prefers slow, text-first friendships or who is uncomfortable being on video with someone they have just met. The format is the point here, and it is not really optional. The Mature 17+ rating also makes this an app for adults rather than a family one.

A free way to meet people face to face

Monkey is a straightforward proposition: swipe through cards, match with people, and talk to them on video. The profile mood and auto-playing song give it a bit of personality that a plain photo grid lacks, and Squad Chat means it is not only about strangers. The developer presents it as the quickest, simplest and most enjoyable way to connect with people worldwide, and the design is clearly built around that idea.

It is free, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases, with a 3.8 average from 73,326 ratings and over 10 million installs. The most recent update, from September 23, 2026, is a performance and bug-fix release rather than a feature drop, which is a fair sign of where the app is at.

If you want to meet new people and you are happy to do it on camera, this is worth installing. If video with strangers sounds like a chore, the app's central feature will be the thing that puts you off, and no amount of swiping will change that.

What's new in version 7.68.0

- Performance improved and Bug fixed.