There's Finally An App To Help You Find Mom Friends

The new app Peanut can help you swipe your way to new mom friends

Making new friends as a mom is hard. Getting out of the house with kids in tow is a struggle, and chatting up a mom you randomly meet can have all the awkwardness of a bad first date. Ever since dating apps came on the scene, moms everywhere have wished there was a way we could meet potential mom friends the same way. Finally, our wishes have be granted. A new app called Peanut will connect you with nearby potential mom friends the same way Tinder does for dating (but without the unsolicited dick pics).

The app was recently released in beta form for iPhone users. It’s completely free and as of now, has no ads. It works by connecting with your Facebook profile to pull your photos, location and occupation to create a user profile. This makes setup super fast and the app easy to use. But if you don’t want people to see a certain photo the app pulled (like that goofy one of you in your Halloween costume), you can edit the photos and information settings.

The app is designed for pregnant moms and moms for children up to age 16. When you set up your profile, you can opt to put in whether you’re expecting and/or the names and ages of any kids you already have. This is useful when scoping out possible mom matches, so you can see if you have kids that would be the same age for playdates.

The app also lets you pick three badges that best describe you to show on your profile and give other moms a sense of who you are. You can play it fun:

Or you can use it as a way to find like-minded moms. For example, there’s badges for moms with special needs children or moms who are all about that organic life.

The app is designed to foster meaningful connection between moms instead of just mindlessly scrolling through people. You have to decide on a course of action for someone before moving on to the next potential mom friend. If you think you might get along with a mom, swipe up to give her a “wave.” If she “waves” at you too, she’ll show up on your match list and you’re free to start messaging each other. You can still message someone who didn’t wave back at you, but the message will go to a separate folder.

If you don’t think a mom is a good fit right now, just swipe down. You can also go back and redo your answer, in case the baby bumps your hand and you accidentally swipe down on someone who seemed awesome.

Once you find a group of gals you think are cool, you can start a group chat, create an event to meet up in real life or even create a poll (Like who you really think is going to win The Bachelor).

The app is the brainchild of Michelle Kennedy, who worked on other apps like Bumble and Badoo. She says the idea for Peanut came to her after she became a mother herself. “I thought, I can help all of these people date, but I can’t find liked-minded women to have coffee with,” she told The Daily Mail. “I didn’t stop being me because I was pregnant nor did I lose my identity, but I could not find other mothers who had the same interests as me.”

Caring for kids can be isolating. Even if you do manage to hit up a story time or the park, it’s hard to scope out potential mom friends when you’re trying to keep an eye on your little one at the same time. Peanut is a great way to find nearby moms like you who are also looking for friend without having to chat up strangers in public.