Common Sense Media Review
By Patricia Monticello Kievlan
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Swipe right to find strangers on Snapchat; not for kids.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 17+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Wink - make new snap friends
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 8 parent reviews
Based on 12 kid reviews
Kids say that while this app can be a fun way to connect with peers, it poses significant risks for younger users, including potential exposure to predators and inappropriate content. Many highlight the need for parental awareness and stress that the app resembles a dating platform for kids, which could enable dangerous interactions if privacy settings are not carefully managed.
- dangerous for kids
- privacy concerns
- responsible use
- potential for grooming
- mixed experiences
Summarized with AI
Summarized with AI
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
WINK - MAKE NEW SNAP FRIENDS is a free social media app intended to help Snapchat users find new friends. Users create brief profiles that include a name, age, country, and gender, and they then choose who they'd like to meet based on the same criteria. Users under 17 aren't supposed to use the platform. However, if you chose an age between 13 and 17, your connections' age range is limited to the same range. Users can swipe left to pass and right to "like" another user's profile. If you and another user both swipe right on each other's profiles, you have the option to add each other as friends on Snapchat. Users get a limited number of swipes each day based on their current stash of "gems, " the app's currency. You can earn gems by logging into the app daily, sharing about it on social media and sharing your friends' contact information.
Is It Any Good?
While making new Snapchat friends sounds fairly innocent, there's not much to recommend this approach which is appearance-focused and leads to contact with strangers. Connections are based solely on an adult dating app swiping system, and there's no way to verify profile information: There's no official connection to the Snapchat app, so becoming friends with someone on Wink - make new snap friends might lead to a very different Snapchat profile than you might expect. People creating profiles aren't required to share photos directly from their Snapchat account, so there's no guarantee that you're connecting with who you think you are. Users can misrepresent their age and location to give them access to more profiles. In fact, many accounts at the time of this review had captions stating that users were younger than they reported in their profile. Reporting or blocking a profile doesn't seem to work consistently, since blocked and reported posts resurfaced in the queue of swipeable profiles. And there are tons of profiles featuring nudity and profanity despite the app's community guidelines forbidding both. For seasoned Snapchat users and social media newcomers alike, Wink - make new snap friends doesn't lead to more connection, only complication -- and potentially creepy encounters.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about using apps like Wink - make new snap friends and the long-term effects of sharing what are assumed to be private moments through apps like Snapchat and Instagram. What are the risks?
Discuss how Wink's looks-only style can affect a person's self esteem. Read Common Sense's blog post "Is Social Media Giving Your Teen a Negative Body Image?"
Talk about sharing things online. What's entertaining and funny to post, and what's not?
Families can talk about what it means to take photos and manipulate images. When is that fun, and when might it not be OK?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure : Free
- Release date : January 31, 2020
- Genre : Social Networking
- Publisher : 9 Count
- Version : 1.0.12
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 9.0 or later. Android 4.4 and up.
- Last updated : October 9, 2025
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
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