Виральный пикник в Торонто привел к созданию нового приложения для знакомств Wander

Near Exhibition Place on a recent sunny Toronto weekend, about 1,000 strangers — according to the organizer’s estimate — gathered for an afternoon that included everything from manhunt, psychic readings, blindfolded matchmaking and bracelet-making to a pet snake named “Shakira.” The gathering marked the return of Toronto content creator Winnie Chen‘s viral strangers’ picnic, which first gained attention in 2025 after her social media invitation asking strangers to join her for a picnic drew interest from thousands of people. The annual picnic has since evolved into something that lasts well beyond an afternoon in the park. How a viral park picnic launched an off-line community Building on the momentum from last year’s viral event, Chen co-founded Wander, an app designed to help people meet off-line, IRL, through interest-based group chats. The app hosts group chats for everything from run clubs, volleyball nights and FIFA watch parties to Costco trips, matcha runs, car meets, clubbing, urban exploration and even “Toronto Summer Maxxing” — if you are looking to make the most of the city during the summer. Users can also browse area-based group chats for local hangouts and create their own as well. Rather than functioning as a traditional events app, Chen describes Wander as a “TikTok style” feed of group chats. An AI assistant named “Winnie” asks users about their interests and hobbies before recommending communities and potential connections. “Imagine I was the host of the picnic, and I get to know every single person,” Chen said. “I’d be like, Oh my god, I think you would love hanging out with you guys, because you guys both share a common like, you both like pickleball, I’m going to make you guys a group chat.’” Safety features and fighting dating app fatigue Chen said she also wanted to avoid recreating the experience of dating apps. “What we want to avoid is rejection by swiping,” she said. “There are a lot of reasons why people don’t even like the dating apps now … for the woman, you’re getting overwhelmed with these matches. For the guys, maybe you’re not getting the right matches, you’re not getting matches at all. When you feel rejected, it just doesn’t feel good for you, or your self-esteem.” She said the goal is to help Torontonians and visitors find communities and make connections in real life. “I feel like loneliness is a huge problem. Because social media is trying to keep people on social media. And it’s not even social — it’s just media. So, we want to bring the social part of social media back.” Before Wander, Chen ran a Discord server that quickly grew to about 6,000 members after her first picnic. While it helped people organize hangouts, she said the platform lacked safety features that made some users hesitant to meet strangers. “There are a lot of safety issues,” she said. “I didn’t go out with anyone at the Discord because I just could not risk that for me.” Chen said a Toronto-based company working on a similar idea later reached out, and she joined as a co-founder to build Wander. The app includes features such as age verification and profiles bios. According to Chen, Wander surpassed 10,000 users last week. Highlights from the annual Toronto strangers’ picnic David Gai, a Wander user who attended Saturday’s picnic, said he uses the app almost daily and attends a few meetups each month. “I’ve made some pretty close friends from it,” he said. Gai arrived at the picnic with friends he met through Wander and said he has used the app to organize gaming sessions and sports watch parties. “You usually meet as a group,” he said, adding that meeting strangers can still be “like a box of chocolates” because “you don’t know what you’re going to get, right?” Throughout Saturday afternoon, strangers shook hands, compared bingo cards designed to spark conversations and danced together while a psychic — who first joined through a Wander group chat — gave readings focused on love, health and purpose. Some attendees offered free life advice, others gave away doughnuts and Pokemon cards, and Toronto creator “Speaker Legend” Long Chung made a cameo appearance. Matchmakers and content creators, Nina Guo and Harrison Wong, paired blindfolded strangers for short conversations before asking whether they wanted to exchange contact information. Wong said the idea came after repeatedly hearing complaints about Toronto’s dating scene on his street interview channel “Something Wong Show.” Meanwhile, Guo said she wants “to bring more connection and whimsicalness into Toronto.” Last year’s viral invitation caught the attention of Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, who reached out to Chen to help secure a location for the original picnic and returned this year to mingle with attendees. Malik told Toronto.com that the day was brought together through “amazing partnerships, incredible community members and young people.” “To be able to connect in a free and fun and inclusive way, that’s what I love. That’s how we should be using our city spaces,” she added. Chen said she hopes both Wander and the picnic continue to grow in the future. She hopes the picnic eventually becomes an annual “tradition to bring Gen Z together.”