Why I built Tide

I'll keep this honest, because Tide started from something I'm not proud of and a lot of people quietly go through: I was lonely at college.

I went to UC San Diego. On paper it's everything you're supposed to want — over 30,000 students, beautiful campus, world-class everything. And I'd walk between lectures past thousands of people and not know a single one of them. Big lecture halls where nobody talks. A dining hall where everyone already seemed to have their group. I kept waiting for the part where it all clicked, where the friends just happened the way everyone said they would. For a long stretch, it didn't.

What surprised me most was how normal that turned out to be. I assumed I was the only one struggling while everyone else was thriving. I was wrong. Most people around me were having the exact same week — sitting next to someone in a 300-person class for ten weeks and never learning their name, scrolling alone in their dorm at 11pm, feeling like the social part of college was a club they hadn't found the door to.

So why does a huge school feel so empty?

The cruel irony of a big campus is that the sheer scale that's supposed to give you "your people" is the same thing that makes them impossible to find. Thirty thousand students is too many to ever cross paths with on purpose. The structure that's meant to connect you — giant lectures, a sprawling campus, packed dining halls — is the same structure that keeps you anonymous in a crowd.

And the apps that were supposed to help made it worse. The big "campus" apps — Sidechat, Fizz, Yik Yak — are anonymous feeds. They're fine for venting and rating the dining hall, but they're not built to introduce you to anyone. You can scroll one for an hour and come away knowing zero new people. An anonymous gossip feed doesn't fix loneliness; sometimes it just gives it a soundtrack. (If you want the longer version of that argument, I wrote about whether anonymous campus apps are actually safe, and how Tide stacks up as a Sidechat alternative and a Fizz alternative.)

This isn't just my story. In a 2021 Harvard Graduate School of Education Making Caring Common survey, 36% of Americans reported "serious loneliness," with young adults among the loneliest groups measured. The people most likely to feel alone are exactly the ones surrounded by the most other people — students.

What is Tide, and how is it different?

Tide is a students-only social app built around one stubborn idea: the goal is to meet people, not to scroll past them. So instead of one anonymous feed, it does the few things that actually start friendships:

• Daily Tide — every day you're matched with one other student from your campus who shares your interests. One person, not a feed. Low pressure, just a reason to say hi to someone you'd never have found in a crowd of 30,000.
• Class group chats — find the people in your actual courses and sections. That stranger you sat next to for ten weeks finally has a name and a group chat.
• Campus events — what's actually happening on your campus, so "we should hang out" turns into a real plan.
• An optional-identity feed — you can post anonymously when you want to, but the whole app is built to move you toward real connections, not keep you hidden forever.

The piece I care about most is that everyone on Tide is a verified student. You sign up with a .edu email, so the people you meet are actually your classmates — no bots, no random strangers, no adults pretending to be students. That single rule is what makes a daily match feel safe enough to act on. You can read more about how we handle that on our trust and safety page.

The mission

I'm not trying to build another app you doomscroll at 1am and feel worse after. The honest measure of whether Tide works isn't time-on-app — it's whether you closed it because you went to go meet someone. The win is a coffee, a study group, a name you now know, a freshman who didn't have to white-knuckle their first quarter alone the way I did.

Tide is free. There's no premium tier dangling the good features behind a paywall — loneliness shouldn't cost $9.99 a month. It's live at UC campuses including UCSD, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC Davis, and we're expanding to more US colleges. I'm building it for the version of me who needed it, and for everyone walking across a huge campus right now feeling like they're the only one who hasn't figured it out. You're not. That's the whole point.

If any of this sounds familiar, you can open the web app with your .edu email right now, or grab the iOS beta on TestFlight. And if you just want to understand what we're building before you sign up, start with what Tide is.

Frequently asked questions

Who created Tide?

Tide was created by a UC San Diego student. He found that a 30,000-person campus felt socially isolating and hard to make friends at, and built Tide to fix the gap between being surrounded by people and actually meeting them. The mission is to help students make real friends, not just scroll an anonymous feed.

Why was Tide made?

Tide was made because big colleges can feel lonely even when they're packed with students. The founder experienced this firsthand at UCSD: giant lectures, no easy way to meet people, and existing apps that were just anonymous gossip feeds. Tide exists to help verified students actually meet each other through a daily match, class group chats, and campus events.

Is Tide only for college students?

Yes. Tide is students-only. You sign up with a .edu email, so everyone on the app is a verified student at a real college. That keeps out bots, strangers, and people pretending to be students, which is what makes meeting someone from your daily match feel safe.

How is Tide different from Sidechat, Fizz, or Yik Yak?

Those apps are mostly anonymous gossip feeds — built for venting, not for meeting people. Tide is built to actually connect you: a daily interest match from your campus, group chats for your real classes, campus events, and real-but-optional identity. Every Tide user is also .edu-verified, which most anonymous apps don't require.

Is Tide free?

Yes, Tide is completely free. There's no premium tier hiding the main features behind a paywall. You can open the web app with your .edu email or join the iOS beta on TestFlight at no cost.

What colleges is Tide available at?

Tide is live at UC campuses including UCSD, UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC Davis, and it's expanding to more US colleges. You can check your campus on the campuses page. If your school isn't live yet, signing up with your .edu email helps us prioritize it.