# Soda - make new friends — Make friends as your avatar > Meet new friends globally using a customizable avatar in video calls. (iPhone/iPad app by 9 Count, Inc..) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/soda-make-new-friends/id6449960629 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [9 Count, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1458551455) - Category: Social Networking, Lifestyle - Price: Free - Rating: 1.42/5 from 2,554 App Store ratings · 25 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 12+ - Requires: iOS 14.1 · 167 MB - Languages: English - Released: 2023-06-14 - Data updated: 2026-06-10 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/soda-make-new-friends/id6449960629/reviews.md ## What is Soda? On Soda, you can meet new friends as your Avatar! It’s as easy as creating an avatar that feels like “you” and starting conversations with new friends from around the world! CREATE Creating your avatar is fun and easy! Either take a photo and let us create an avatar for you, or completely customize your look with everything from eye color to hairstyle. Choose from a huge collection of unique outfits and accessories to make your avatar stand out. CHAT Join video calls as your avatar instantly, and feel connected to new friends anywhere, anytime. You never have to worry about how you look on camera - let your avatar represent you while you focus on enjoying conversations with friends. STAY SAFE Soda is intended to be used for making new friends from all over the world. Our team at Soda is very passionate about making this the best and safest app to make you feel more connected. Although this communication with new friends doesn’t always happen on our platform, we urge our users to be mindful when considering sharing location, full name, and all other personal information with new friends. Additionally, Soda takes our community guidelines very seriously, and will disable any accounts reported for violating these rules. Please report anything you see that isn’t right! For more information on safety, visit https://www.getwinkapp.com/safety/. To read up on our Community Guidelines, visit https://www.getwinkapp.com/community/. Let’s work together to keep everyone safe on Soda! Questions or concerns? Feel free to email our team at support@getwinkapp.com. --- Soda is free to download and use. Additionally, users can choose to subscribe to Soda+ or purchase different gem packs. Try Soda+ today for free gems, an ad free experience and more. ## Key features - Create customizable avatars - Video calls as your avatar - Meet friends worldwide - Focus on conversation - Avatar customization options - Safe social interactions ## What do users think of Soda? Overall sentiment: negative **Cons** - 🚫 Lack of chat/text option - 🔒 Potential for predators due to lack of profile visibility - 🤖 Fake/bot accounts - 💔 Loss of old friends/connections from Wink - 🙅‍♀️ Forced voice calls instead of optional - 🤔 Confusing app change with no warning **Commonly reported bugs** - Wink app no longer working - Lost access to old Wink data/friends **Most requested features** - Bring back Wink app - Add chat/text option - Allow profile visibility - Separate apps for voice and text-based features ## Recent user reviews (10 of 25) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/soda-make-new-friends/id6449960629/reviews.md ### 1/5 — We need Wink back! *2023-08-24* Come on! Are you going to ignore the fact that people are making a complaint about this app? I mean, why oh why did you get rid of this app? If we going to talk in this app, at least put the chat in so we won’t have to only talk through voice call. Plus, it’s a bad idea to use those animation icons whatever that is, because it will hide your real life looks, making it easy for predators to be in this app… There’s No way I’m going to use this app. It’s a definition of trash. Oh wait! Trash is actually useful ### 1/5 — Bring wink back *2023-08-04* I hate soda for us people with social anxiety this is an absolute nightmare, it is impossible do chat on the app so we are forced to speak with people we have never met which can be scary as well win was much better and judging by ratings other people agree I can see that you aren’t replying to these ratings which confuses me on what your next move is. I have no idea why you felt the need to get rid of a perfectly good app when you could have just made soda seperate this app won’t last and all you have done is push yourselves into a corner This is the worst app I’ve ever used and the AUDACITY to do this is so annoying anyways fix it ### 1/5 — Wink is better. *2023-07-31* I used wink for a lot of reasons, making friends, TEXTING, using the AI, but with this new app I can only call and make an avatar?? As someone who doesn’t like calling unless we’re friends or we know each other, this app isn’t useful to me at all, honestly I don’t know why the app change. Tbh I just want wink back and the AI I used cause I used the AI a LOT. And it was fun making friends too, i can’t really make friends on this app if I don’t call unless I know them already? Honestly this app is SO so disappointing. ### 1/5 — Why did wink have to go *2023-07-25* This app is one of the worst I have ever seen it’s sad to see such a good app go to waste now we have to voice chat with people and hope that their isn’t a predator on the other side of the screen I Lost all my friends I had on wink and they don’t even have a chatting feature on this app so you are forced to voice chat and hope you don’t get a weirdo i don’t know why they would make this decision to make soda because wink was one of the perfects apps to actually make friends on I met a lot of good people and to see this app change just really isn’t for me I hope they bring back wink or at least make some changes with this new app ### 1/5 — Bring back wink *2023-07-24* The fact y’all see people don’t like the app but continue to ignore how we feel really shows how much u guys really care about your community. I’d have no problem with the ft option if I was given a choice but I have no choice. It’s either face cam or nothing. And on top of that I was recommended people WAY older then me then I expected. Maybe if they were separate apps, but you littearly took away the one everyone likes to give us something we don’t, then ignore everyone who tells you they don’t like it ### 1/5 — BRING BACK WINK *2023-07-22* i miss wink. as someone who prefers texting over then voice messaging and all the stuff especially when talking to strangers i wish there was this option. also we can’t even see the other persons face. there are so many predators on this app. yes there were predators on wink as well but you could easily figure out who was a real person and who was a bot etc. many people hate this app and want wink back. BRING BACK WINK. you are basically asking for young kids to get groomed by predators on this app. this is not a safe app as you claim it is. wink was safer. BRING BACK WINK ### 1/5 — PLEASE BRING BACK WINK *2023-07-18* I hate this so much like what was the reason of doing this you could of still made this app but still have wink a the same time we could have both y’all can’t see that y’all are losing followers and people from your apps I would think you would want to bring wink back because you’re losing more people by the second, please bring back Wink that’s all we want you made the app for us to make friends and more that’s what we did but you took it away from us, and we have no way to tell them what happened ### 1/5 — Sadly bad reviews and bad news *2023-07-18* As a user of Wink, I've been disappointed by the recent updates. I really miss the old version of the app, which felt more intuitive and user-friendly. It's frustrating to see the app change in ways that don't align with what we, the users, want. I hope that the creators of Wink will take our feedback seriously and consider making changes that will bring back the features we love. BEWARE OF THE CREEPERS ON THE NEW APP TOO MANY CATFISHES !!! ### 1/5 — I miss wink *2023-07-17* I originally downloaded wink, its unfortunate to see that it isnt here anymore. I tried using soda to see if itd be better in some way. I was completely wrong. I feel like wink should be brought back, no one seems to like soda and wink is better anyways. Its extremely nerve racking when trying to talk to people on there because its like a live facetime. If youre gonna keep soda i feel like you should at least make an option for a regular chat for those who dont feel comfortable being on a live chat. I also didnt like the fact that even though i put in my age i was given facetime recommendations of people way older than me. Wall i did get some people near my age i think there should be a settings option asking which age range youd like to talk to. ### 1/5 — BRING BACK WINK BRING BACK WINK BRING BACK WINK!!!! *2023-07-17* as someone who becomes extremely overwhelmed with voice chatting with strangers, this app is absolutely garbage, there are so many predators in these apps made for teens, and making it to where we can’t see who we are talking to, let alone have the option to show our faces makes it an even better target for predators. yes in the old wink there were predators aswell, but not as much as there is on this “ soda “ app. it’s actually pretty unsettling to know that you creators of soda are aware that there are minors on here, and you made it to where again we can’t see who we are talking to, not even a profile picture so we can get a little idea of who we are talking to. you guys have a ton of bad reviews over this app, and you are still choosing to keep wink down, i think at this point you are looking for children to be groomed. you say this is a safe app, but how are we supposed to feel safe when we are talking to a stranger, not knowing what they look like. please, for the sake of all of your users, bring wink back. ## Frequently asked questions about Soda ### What is Soda? Soda is a social networking app that allows you to create a personalized avatar and use it to meet new friends from around the world through video calls. It focuses on making connections fun and safe by letting your avatar represent you. ### How does the avatar feature work? You can create your avatar by taking a photo for automatic generation or by customizing it manually with various options for appearance, outfits, and accessories. This avatar then represents you during video calls. ### Is Soda free to use? Yes, Soda is free to download and use. However, users have the option to subscribe to Soda+ for benefits like free gems and an ad-free experience, or purchase gem packs. ### How does Soda ensure user safety? Soda is committed to user safety and has community guidelines in place. They urge users to be mindful of sharing personal information and have a reporting system for violations. More information on safety and guidelines is available on their website. ### Who is Soda for? This app is designed for people who want to make new friends globally in a unique and engaging way. It's ideal for those who prefer to interact through a virtual identity rather than showing their real face on camera. ## Version history (last 1 release) ### 1.0.0 — 2023-06-14 No release notes. ## Apps similar to Soda | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [Swiping - Make Friends](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/swiping-make-friends/id1476856759) | 4.3 (112,696) | Free | Social Networking | | [Hoya - teen dating app](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hoya-teen-dating-app/id1590728083) | 4.2 (429) | Free | Social Networking | | [Peeps - Make New Friends](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/peeps-make-new-friends/id1531639916) | 4.7 (72,319) | Free | Social Networking | | [Fam - Elite](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fam-elite/id1498101615) | 4.9 (7,228) | Free | Social Networking | | [purp - Make new friends](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/purp-make-new-friends/id1562883907) | 4.5 (40,739) | Free | Social Networking | | [BeFriend - Make new friends](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/befriend-make-new-friends/id1537012560) | 4.6 (35,629) | Free | Social Networking | ## More apps by 9 Count, Inc. - [Juju - play, chat, win](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/juju-play-chat-win/id1480298936) - [Wink Dating: Meet, Chat & Date](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wink-dating-meet-chat-and-date/id1482681335) - [Helpline - helpful hotlines](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/helpline-helpful-hotlines/id1581703325) - [Everland: Inspirational Quotes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/everland-inspirational-quotes/id1590614021) - [Summer - More First Dates](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/summer-more-first-dates/id1591636262) - [Wink Live - Random Video Chat](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wink-live-random-video-chat/id1669527062) All apps by 9 Count, Inc.: https://appshunter.io/developer/1458551455 --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*