Socializing in the modern age: This app lets you have dinner with strangers

MANILA, Philippines – When you’re in your 20s and 30s, it’s easy to get caught up in the demands of work. After your usual 9-to-5, it becomes routine to head straight home, do chores, prepare for the next day, then go to sleep. 

It understandably becomes difficult to squeeze in a quick hangout with friends — let alone meet new people — when the demands of life get in the way. We end up turning to online connections, but it’s only a matter of time when we’d need real-life socialization, too. 

Enter Timeleft, a fairly new app launched to address the loneliness epidemic by helping people foster connections with each other, face to face, without you having to worry about the logistics of it all. 

What exactly is Timeleft?

Founded in 2023 in Portugal, Timeleft, in a nutshell, is an app that allows you to have dinner with strangers and hopefully make new friends out of it. After all, great food and great conversations are a killer combination.

What makes Timeleft different, however, is that you go into these dinners with no expectations. Save for a few basic details, you won’t know who your fellow diners will be until you actually meet them on your scheduled dinner.

Today, the app is available in over 180 cities in 49 countries. Timeleft officially made its Philippine debut last August in Taguig City and Makati City. Now, the platform hosts weekly dinners in a total of 10 cities around the Philippines, including those outside Metro Manila:

• Quezon City
• Taguig City
• Makati City
• Pasig City
• Parañaque City
• Muntinlupa City
• Iloilo City
• Davao City
• Bacolod City
• Cebu City

Within Metro Manila, the average age of Timeleft users ranges from 25 to 35.

Dinners are held only every Wednesday — and this was a conscious choice for the team behind Timeleft. 

“[At] the start of the week, people just came back from their weekends, so people are grinding at work. Wednesday is like the hump day, where people might want to take a break and do something easy…. If you think about it, most people have plans already on Friday or Saturday,” Timeleft’s country manager Opal told Rappler. 

Interestingly, according to Timeleft, most of the people who go on the dinners are introverts looking to push themselves out of their comfort zones by meeting new people. It’s also become a helpful tool for newcomers just settling in their new city. 

How do you use it?

If you’re thinking of going on your first dinner, here’s a guide on what you need to do.

Registering

Download the Timeleft app and create an account. You’ll be directed to a personality test that will prompt you to answer questions about your interests, what you do for work, whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, and even your sign (for all the astrology lovers out there).

On the app, you will also be asked to disclose how much you’re willing to spend on your meal. This will then give Timeleft an idea of which restaurant they’ll arrange your dinner with strangers at. According to Opal, the Timeleft team researches these restaurants themselves, taking factors like budget, cuisine, and average Google ratings into consideration.

Signing up for a dinner

When you’re ready to sign up for a dinner, just select which city you’d like to have your Timeleft dinner in.

You’ll be able to book your seat as early as three weeks ahead of your desired schedule or even less than a week before.

A Timeleft booking costs P399, which you can pay for on the app. Note that this is separate from what you’ll be paying for your meal at the end of your dinner.

Timeleft’s algorithm will then match you with other individuals it thinks you’ll be most compatible with, based on what you answered in the personality test. You will then be notified when the app has found at least five other strangers who booked a seat in the same city and on the same Wednesday you chose.

Age is also a big factor during the matching process, so Timeleft tries as much as possible to keep the age range of participants within 10 years “to ensure that everyone is able to talk about the same topics.”

Meeting your ‘assigned strangers‘

Once the algorithm matches you with other strangers, you’ll be given basic details about them a few days before your dinner. You’ll be able to know what industries the people at your table work in, what their nationalities are, their zodiac signs, and the main languages they speak.

Other crucial information, like their personalities and specific interests, are things that are up to you to discover once you actually meet them.

Showing up to the venue

You’ll be able to get information on your assigned restaurant a day before your scheduled dinner. On the big day, just show up at the scheduled time! Inform the restaurant host that you’re there for a Timeleft dinner and they’ll know to lead you to your table.

Having your dinner with strangers

When you finally meet your “assigned strangers,” make conversation with them! If you need help breaking the ice, the app will activate a mini game where you can each take turns answering random questions to get to know each other.

Needless to say, Timeleft is a pretty interesting approach to modern socialization. It’s a unique way to make friends in the age of social media, and it’s worth a shot if you’re willing to step out of your comfort zone on the first dinner. – Rappler.com