Summer is here. Social solo travel apps are making a comeback.
Two players have been battling it out on the App Store since mid-2023:

Both apps are trying to solve the same problem. Solo travelers can join groups and meet people while abroad. It’s a make-friends-and-enjoy-your-best-life kind of concept.
What do they have in common?
Both are founded by female solo-founders.
Both are growing through short-form content.
What’s new?
They’ve (massively) shifted their strategy since we last covered them.
They’ve grown since then — in views, downloads, and revenue.
And they’re not alone anymore…
The full picture:
How it all started (spoiler: not on TikTok)
Both TripBFF and Going Solo started on Instagram Reels.
Up until this year, that was their entire distribution strategy. And it was working.

ig@tripbff started posting in February 2023.
The whole account is faceless, yet all the videos have faces. Weird, right?
I’ll explain:
They alternate between random repurposed clips and pictures from Pinterest.
All posts have a summery, girly, colorful vibe. ☀️

Format #1 – Quick Video Clips
Example video here.
- Cut some clips from existing TikTok and IG Reels videos, and edit them into a 6–10 second video.
- Add a simple, minimalist hook in white text (we’ll get to those soon).
- Include your app CTA as a response to the hook. They usually do it with screenshots, but video works too.
Format #2 – Image Sequence Video
Example video here.
- Get 10–15 summer travel images from Pinterest. You can save a ton in an hour and just remix them for different posts.
- Edit them together into a video, with each image lasting 1–2 seconds.
- Add a static hook overlay that stays on screen for the entire video.
- No CTA.
Format #3 – Movie/TV clips
Example video here.
Same as Format #1, except all video clips are from a well-known TV series or movie.
Usually focused on a popular character who works as an aspirational symbol for young girls and travelers.
Example: “pov: the girl who went solo traveling and never came back” — 137K views
They were using these three formats on repeat, and it worked.
Instagram is the place for curated, aspirational content. Pinterest images and aesthetic, minimalist videos work, and that’s what they picked up on.
Going Solo (ig@goingsoloapp) followed a very similar approach.
They started in May 2023 and posted all the formats described above.
However, some videos are done by creators (we see their faces multiple times across different formats).
Let’s take a look at what we find if we analyze their best hooks…
Very Cutesy, Very Demure Travel Hooks
You might notice a few interesting things about how they use Instagram hooks:
Question format: 11 out of 20 IG hooks are questions (with the answer either in the hook or revealed in the video).
App mention: None of them mention the app name directly, but 3 hooks do reference an app. Interestingly, TripBFF uses the phrase “an app”, while both the #1 and #10 posts for Going Solo use Tinder as a reference.
Location: They’re reusing the exact same hook and just swapping in different countries or cities (i.e. Greece, Paris, Koh Tao…). This is Hook Strategy 101—if one version goes viral, you can spin out 15 more (or in their case, hundreds).
Repetition: Besides changing locations, Going Solo also reuses hooks word for word. For example, #4 and #7 are exactly the same, yet each pulled over 2M views.
Rank | TripBFF (ig@tripbff) | Going Solo (ig@goingsoloapp) |
#1 | so you want to travel this summer but have no one to go with?” ???????????? => 13.9M views | “Why isn’t there a tinder but for finding a travel buddy?!?” => 5.2M views |
#2 | how it feels to not know where your phone is, have dark skin and lighter hair, up as late as you want, school hasn’t crossed anyone’s minds in months, UV 10, and life is good” => 13.3M views | “The best memories are the ones that don’t go as planned…” => 3.5M views |
#3 | “Greece tip #1 ; People don’t dress like this in Europe” => 11.5M views | “How did you meet all those friends in Koh Tao?” => 3.5M views |
#4 | “spending new years in brazil is truly a surreal experience ????????” => 10.2M views | “How’d you meet so many friends in Paris??” => 2.6M views |
#5 | “how do you find parties when you’re travelling? ????????”=> 9.5M views | ”If we meet while travelling, we’ll probably be great friends.” => 2.5M views |
#6 | “there’s 2 types of travelers:” => 9.4M views | “How did you meet all those friends in Thailand??” => 2.4M views |
#7 | “when you’re trying to save money but you’re just a chill girl who is down for everything” => 9M views | “How did you make all those friends in Paris??” => 2.2M views |
#8 | “so you want to travel but your friends won’t come with?” => 8.8M views | “let’s skip school and go to spain together” => 2.1M views |
#9 | “what’s your goal in life?” “me:” => 8.6M views | “When I say “let’s hangout” this is what I mean” => 2M views |
#10 | ”an app to meet other solo travelers? no way” => 7.6M views | “Why isn’t there a tinder but for finding a travel buddy” => 1.9M views |
TikTok Marketing Enters The Chat
Both apps had a couple of branded accounts running on TikTok, but interestingly, all have less traction than on Instagram:
tt@tripbff => 12.3M views, 10.28% engagement rate
tt@goingsoloapp => 16.7M views, 3.33% engagement rate
Interestingly (but not surprisingly), TikTok engagement is way higher than IG Reels—at least for TripBFF.
TripBFF launched their main TikTok account right away (February 2023), but they’ve kept it pretty low-key compared to their Instagram. They are just reposting the same content, but with far less frequency.
Going Solo, on the other hand, created their branded account around October last year.
I’ve pulled together some of their best TikTok hooks for you:
Rank | TripBFF (tt@tripbff) | Going Solo (tt@goingsoloapp) |
#1 | “Me” (first slide), “you” (second slide)=> 1.8M views | “i want to travel the world but no one to go with” 🙁 => 3.9M views |
#2 | “ i wish i had friends to interrail europe with” => 1.2M views | “i wanna travel the world but scared i’ll be lonely” => 2.9M views |
#3 | “i wish there was an app to find other solo travelers”=> 2M in 3 videos | “omg imagine if someone made a tinder but only for matching with other travelers going to the same place as you …” => 2.6M views |
#4 | “groups i would join if i was looking for friends to travel with ✈️✈️ => 596K views | “wonders if i’ll meet any new friends in Australia” => 2.2M views |
#5 | “i wish i had friends to travel the world with” => 4.2M views, multiple videos | “how’d you meet so many friends in Australia?!” => 1.6M views |
#6 | “i wish there was a gen z app to find friends to travel with” => 67.4K views | “so you wanna go backpacking this summer but no one to go with??” ???????? => 993K views |
#7 | “i wish i had friends to spend a summer sailing around europe” => 47.3K views | “how did you meet all those friends in Portugal??” ???????????? => 984K views |
#8 | “how did u make so many friends in spain?” ???????? => 217K views | “i wish i had friends to travel the world with 🙁 “ => 512K views |
There are clear patterns across all these hooks, especially in how they open.
It’s interesting to see how the viral ones differ by platform.
These four are the most relevant hooks (test them in your niche and see what clicks!):
1 . “I wish I had…/ I wish there was…”
This opening line shows up in 10 hooks (6 on TT @tripbff, 2 on TT @goingsoloapp, 2 on IG @goingsoloapp).
Interesting how it performs way better on TikTok than on Instagram.
2 . “How did you meet all those friends…?”
This line appears in 5 hooks (2 on TT @goingsoloapp, 3 on IG @goingsoloapp).
It taps straight into the audience’s biggest pain point and creates instant FOMO if you don’t stay for the answer.
3 . “How’d you meet so many friends in…?”
A more casual version of the line above. Used in 4 hooks (1 on TT @tripbff, 2 on TT @goingsoloapp, 1 on IG @goingsoloapp).
4 . “So you want to travel but…”
This pain-point-first formula speaks directly to anyone stuck in solo travel indecision, which is why it works.
It shows up in 4 hooks (2 on TT @tripbff, 2 on IG @tripbff).
Now here’s where it gets VERY interesting…
In late December, shortly after launching their main TikTok account, Going Solo began expanding by bringing on their first ambassador accounts.
tt@joyce.goingsolo, tt@viktoria.goingsolo, tt@camila.goingsolo… 7 in total.
Posting content showing their faces, but somehow keeping low traction throughout (none above 250K total views)…

So much so that most of these accounts went completely dead by the end of January.
Meanwhile…
In January, the first TripBFF ambassador account popped up on TikTok. Since then, I’ve counted 34 (could be even more by now).
Same logic as Going Solo, with the app suffix at the end:

This ambassador strategy brought wildly different results for the two apps…
Going Solo => 772K views across 18 ambassadors (2 with no videos)
TripBFF => 10.65M views across 34 ambassadors (3 have no videos yet)
…even though their formats are extremely similar:

This account is TripBFF’s best-performing ambassador (tt@sofiatraveling). She reached 3.3M views in 5 months.
She uses a repeated face-showing format (just like Going Solo’s ambassadors), but with extremely long hooks.
Also interesting: on both top-performing accounts, the hooks mention another major app as a reference (Spotify and Tinder).
Rank | TripBFF (tt@sofiatraveling) | Going Solo (tt@francesco.goingso) |
#1 | “f*ck spotify, show me your Spotify wrapped” => 1.7M views | “pov: you joined a community of young travelers (…) and now your life looks like this => 77K views |
#2 | “ONE YEAR OF TRAVELING AND I JUST FOUND THIS” => 749K views | “I just found an app to meet travel buddies? ????” => 25K views |
#3 | “If you travel, please listen to me. Do NOT book on Hostelworld if (…). I just saved so much money doing this” => 273K views | “pov: you just found out there is a tinder for solo travelers” => 22K views |
Important note here: In both cases, it seems like some videos are being boosted by ads. They still appear mostly organic, but take the view counts with a pinch of salt—they might not be 100% organic.
Then, TripBFF took another unexpected turn:
They launched several ambassador accounts using AI-generated UGC content.
One of them, tt@maztraveling (92.2K total views), started posting in February.
Recently, I noticed several similar, slow-paced videos.
Something felt off—and that’s what it was.

None of these videos has taken off…yet. But AI UGC could be the next step in scaling an ambassador strategy to dozens—if not hundreds—of accounts.
What they seem to be doing now is mixing a few AI videos with real UGC, all within the same account.
Pro tip: to mask the unnatural movement and look of the AI creators, they use super-long text hook overlays. If you’re thinking about experimenting with AI UGC, this is a smart way to make it feel more organic.
Millions of Views And Downloads Mean That…
New players are popping up.
As with any niche, good ideas get copied.
Solo travel apps are on the rise, and a few new ones—like NomadTable—are off to a strong start.
NomadTable serves to connect solo travelers in real time.

They launched less than two months ago and already have over 10K downloads.
Between March and April, they set up 12 UGC accounts on TikTok, which totaled 5.3M views.
Not bad at all for under 60 days.

Beyond the classic shocked expression from a female creator (which we all know and love, and are also maybe getting a bit tired of), there’s a clever hook in their top-performing account.
tt@solotravelingmarg (2.4M views) has two viral videos where the creator uses this visual hook:

Another account, tt@josisolotravel, hit 417K views in just 25 days. She’s posting videos of herself showing her face, with lots of hooks targeting the fear of solo traveling.
Example: “Imagine being scared of solo traveling when this literally exists” — 100.3K views
There still aren’t many social travel apps… at least not doing any real TikTok marketing.

Those are “network effect” social apps.
There will be one winner.
Who do you think will take over the niche?
—
The Social Growth Engineers Team
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