Over 60s Friendship: New Friends, Good Company and Maybe More

Single 60s Australia is a good place to make friends after 60 as well as to date. Choose friendship on your profile and your daily matches will favour people who want the same. You can chat one to one, and VIP members can set up private group chats for up to 50 people to plan outings together.

Growing your circle again after 60

Retirement takes away the easy daily contact of work. Children move interstate, old friends move to the coast or into care, and a partner's death can leave a house very quiet. None of this is unusual, yet many people feel it as if it were. The answer is rarely one big change. It is a handful of regular, low-pressure contacts: a weekly walk, a phone call, a shared hobby.

A site like Single 60s helps because everyone there has said, in effect, "I would like to meet someone." That takes away the hardest part of making a new friend, which is working out whether the other person is open to it.

How to use Single 60s for friendship

Say what you want

Pick friendship as your relationship type, and say on your profile what kind of company you are after. "Someone to try the new café with on a Thursday" is clearer than "friendship".

Lead with interests

Interests on each profile, from volunteering and documentaries to handicrafts and long conversations, are the natural starting point. A message about a shared interest is easy to answer.

Make it a group

If one-to-one feels too much like a date, VIP members can start a private group chat, invite a few people they have been talking to, and plan a lunch or a stroll along the river together. Free members can join a group chat when a VIP member invites them.

When friendship turns into something more

It happens, and often it is the best way round. Two people who enjoy each other's company over a few months know far more about each other than two people who met for a single drink. If you would like to keep the door open, say on your profile that you are open to both. If you want friendship only, say so kindly and clearly; most people will appreciate knowing.

Friendship away from the screen

Online is one route. Others are U3A, which runs low-cost classes taught by and for retired people in towns and suburbs across Australia, Probus clubs, bowls and golf clubs, community gardens, choirs and volunteering. Our guide to where singles over 60 meet goes through them, and if you would like romance as well, see our pages on dating over 70 and dating after losing a partner.