About Us
Hexlink is a digital neighborhood notice board designed to connect you with people who live right down the street - not an hour away on the other side of the city.
Modern life makes it remarkably easy to feel isolated, even if you're surrounded by thousands, if not millions of people. Hexlink offers a low-friction way to discover hyper-local communities, host gatherings, and turn "people nearby" into real-world friends.
The Inspiration
The idea came from a classic city experience: wanting to go out and do things, but being too burnt out to travel an hour into central London just to meet strangers who live in opposite directions.
You see people on your daily commute or at your local shop who look like your kind of people, but starting a conversation out of nowhere feels awkward, so you don't bother. Yet when you look back at how making friends used to work (at school, university, or work), two factors made it effortless: proximity and consistency. You saw the same people in the same places every day, without the pressure of a cold approach.
Hexlink tackles the proximity problem by encouraging micro-communities in places where you can actually say, "Yeah, I can be bothered to go there and hang out for a bit" after a long day of work.
Our Mission
We want to reduce everyday loneliness by lowering the effort it takes to build a local social life.
As a hopeful side-effect, we want to help people spend a little less time staring at screens and getting brainrotted by algorithms. We got so used to chatting online, watching other people ramble and reading comment sections that talking to people feels terrifying. Because everyone on Hexlink is starting from the same place, we hope to make that transition back to real-world social interaction just a little bit easier.
Want to touch grass? Check out our tips on unbrainrotting yourself and making friendships.
Trust & Privacy
Hexlink is built on a simple philosophy: it should be lightweight, privacy-respecting, and community-driven.
We collect the bare minimum data required to function, e.g. you only need an account if you're actively managing a community. The project operates on a non-profit basis focused on covering basic server costs, not turning a profit. We will never sell your data, flood the platform with invasive tracking, or wall off basic community features behind paywalls.
We welcome anyone who wants to help us grow together. The documentation is already open source so we hope you chip in with your experiences.
Want to contribute? See our page on getting involved