Jul 01, 2025
In 2025, relationships are being redefined. Not just romantically, but across every axis of connection. In a world shaped by digital fatigue, loneliness epidemics, and rising social anxiety, people are seeking out slower, deeper, and more intentional ways of relating. The focus has shifted from swipe-based dating and online small talk to offline friendships, chosen family, and community rituals. We have a role to play here: not just by supporting connection, but by creating the conditions for it to flourish.
Where It's Going: Relationship Renaissance has held steady. The desire for deeper, more meaningful connection hasn’t waned. If anything, it’s become more essential. Six months on, people are still seeking out new ways to meet, talk, and build bonds beyond the screen. The need for this trend remains exactly where we left it: front and centre.
In Boston, a quiet act of rebellion against the optimisation age is taking shape. Month Friend pairs two strangers by email for one month of daily prompted correspondence – no algorithms, no profile curation, no likes. Just two humans exchanging thoughts, from soup preferences to core memories. Users can’t swipe or pick their partners. It’s designed to mimic summer camp friendships: intense, fleeting, and real. In a digital world driven by performance and metrics, Month Friend embraces awkwardness, boredom, and sincerity instead. It’s even designed to be deliberately “worse” than other platforms. In resisting slick UX and endless scrolls, it offers something increasingly rare online: trust in the process, not the outcome.
So What: Month Friend is an example of a brand recognising that people are craving depth over dopamine. We’re designing digital spaces that slow people down, centre human-to-human exchange, and let go of performance in favour of presence.
On this new dating app, chatting with matches is banned and the app arranges your first date for you by booking a table at a partner venue.
People aren’t just craving connection for themselves: they’re finding it in media as well. This year, romantasy novel ‘Onyx Storm’ by Rebecca Yarros became the fastest selling adult novel in 20 years.
Heineken Malaysia has turned everyday spots like gyms and grocery stores into surprise pop-up music venues. The series connected people through live performances and a collaboration with Timeleft, a platform that helps strangers connect and start real conversations.