Friendship online: a mobile app to tackle social isolation

Here’s what Health News Media has to say about Amintro in their article.

A new social club and online community called Amintro was created to make it easier for 50+ adults to find new friends. Already launched across Canada, Amintro is not a dating service but matches like-minded adults with similar adults to combat loneliness and social isolation among older adults.

We discovered Amintro, a social app intended as a social club and online community exclusively for adults ages 50+, at the OACAO conference in October. The founder and CEO, Charlene Nadalin explains its origins: “I created the word Amintro specifically to reflect our purpose – introducing new people and making friends. I looked to the Latin-based languages for inspiration and found the prefix ‘ami’ which means friend, friendship, pal or buddy. In Spanish this might mean ‘amigo;’ in French it’s simply ‘ami,’ while in Italian its ‘amici.’ Dig further and you’ll find even the word amiable means to be ‘friendly and agreeable in feeling and disposition.’ So, ‘ami’ is a very friendly word. Paired together with ‘intro’ (the short form for ‘introduction’) and suddenly you have Amintro, a great word symbolizing all that we do for our clients. At Amintro, we help friends find each other.”

Amintro is an introduction service, and the founder insists they are NOT a dating app. Nadalin continues, “We help adults connect with other like-minded adults in their community who are looking for people who share common interests and backgrounds.”

The app offers a free platform for people to register where they can enter their hobbies, activities and subjects of interest along with their location and age group. Confidentiality is guaranteed; information is collected to better match registrants as potential friends with shared interests. One can select from a large variety of topics of interest or add their own.

Amintro’s goal is to combat loneliness and isolation in the 50+ demographic. Their marketing states, “We make it easy, simple, fast, safe and secure to meet new friends and form platonic relationships with people we’ve already helped determine you’ll have something in common with.”

“Amintro was built on a solid foundation of research and a true desire to help others by developing a friendship-making platform that reduces social isolation and loneliness amongst the fastest growing demographic,” states Nadalin. “Our unique offering is focused exclusively on adults over 50 and is based on characteristics that our research has shown to be ideal for forming friendships.”

As their web site says, “Amintro recognizes that friendship knows no bounds and it knows no age.”