This guy made an app that lets you shoot your shot with a friend without embarrassing yourself
A young developer claimed to solve the awkward friend crush dilemma with a new kind of dating app called Mutual. According to Josh Wolk, the app allows you to anonymously confess to a friend that someone on their contact list likes them. If they, too, like someone on their list, they can choose to take a chance on romance. The hope is that this could avoid a friendship rupture in case that target isn't looking for love.
Whether this app would cause more success stories than disasters remains in question. Some commenters on Wolk's announcement are already plotting to sow chaos among their buddies.
Mutual: The friendship to dating app
If you've ever had a crush on a friend, you likely know the conflict between wanting to ask them out and fearing an end to a platonic relationship. Some of the best romantic futures can start with friendship, but a rejection can be too much for two pals to bear.
Wolk thinks he's solved this with Mutual. According to his posts on X and TikTok, the app allows you to send an anonymous message telling a friend that someone on their contacts list likes them. If they also have a friend crush, the recipient can download the app, select anyone they like on their own list, and if one of those is the sender, it notifies both parties of the match.
If the recipient does not select the sender, the app conceals their name, potentially avoiding a painful situation.
According to Wolk, this process will allow you to essentially "ask your friends out without making things awkward."
Game theory for dating
In other videos, Wolk claimed to use "game theory" in his development of the app. Game theory, according to Britannica, is a "branch of applied mathematics that provides tools for analyzing situations in which parties, called players, make decisions that are interdependent."
"This interdependence causes each player to consider the other player’s possible decisions, or strategies, in formulating strategy."
Basically, this young app maker attempted to take the high risk out of a situation that could produce a high reward. Normally, you would have to consider your crush's interests and future decisions when risking a crush reveal in a situation Wolk calls the "proximity dilemma."
@josh.wolk mathematics is about to help you fix your dating life
"The closer you are friends with someone, the higher the potential for a high quality relationship," he assumed in a TikTok video. "But also, the higher the perceived risk of ruining that friendship by expressing your feelings."
Wolk goes on to describe a "payoff matrix," assigning positive or negative numerical values to the act of asking a crush out or not and the resulting rejection or reciprocation. Two friends starting a relationship is an incredible reward, but a rejection could poison a friendship or even "blow up the friend group."
Therefore, many people elect to endure the low-level pain of never knowing how a crush feels about them. "How can we turn this on its head?" Wolk asked.
'Men used to wage war'
In the comments on Wolk's May 12, 2025, X post announcing the friend dating app Mutual, some appeared excited about the idea and even claimed to have tried it with positive results. However, plenty hated the idea, feeling that people need to simply get up the courage to ask a crush out without an app. "Alpha male" types took the most offense.
"Men used to wage war and conquer lands," said @Techniacus. "Now we use apps to ask girls out because we're scared."
One might argue that being scared to ask someone out is preferable to war, but learning how to talk to people honestly is probably better than both.
"People would invent smartphones, app stores, and apps just to avoid developing social skills," joked software development manager @SAKrisT.
A lot of women also rejected the idea of a man pursuing them via app rather than taking a risk.
"Immediate ick if a man didn’t have the balls to just ask me out and I found out via APP," said @sarah_satoshi.
Friend group chaos potential
No app can please all the people all the time, but there might be another issue. A number of X users laid out plans to intentionally blow up their friend groups with Mutual dating app by sending crush notifications to everyone.
User @SHL0MS quickly pointed out the chaos potential, noting that "you have no way of verifying beforehand that the receiver has the sender in their contacts, so i can cause havoc by mass sending this to people from an anonymous number."
"It’s all fun and games until everyone matches with you on purpose during a game of truth or dare to see how many of them you like," warned @branmcconnell.
Meanwhile, @sfspacesquid fantasized about screwing with a friend by posing as that person's crush.
"Updating my contact to be my friends crush then sending him a like," they said with a laughing gif.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @joshuawolk for comment via X.
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