BuddyPress · BuddyBoss · Member onboarding
New members land on an empty profile and leave. This plugin gives them friends on day one.
When someone registers, the plugin connects them with the members you choose: global friends, specific roles, or member types. It runs in the background and sends no friend requests, so members find connections already in place.
★★★★★ Works with BuddyPress 14.x and BuddyBoss Platform · Silent by default since 1.8.4 · No custom database tables
New SC ML PN DK EY
5 friendships created · no email sent
Built for
Built for communities that lose members on day one.
Auto-friendship starts working the next time someone registers. Pick the scenario closest to your community.
01
Community managers fighting the cold start
Pin yourself and your moderators as Global Friends. Every new signup is connected to the whole team the moment they register, so the first profile they open already has familiar faces on it.
02
Membership site owners with paid tiers
Point the welcome group at a WordPress role like paid_member. When a member upgrades and gains that role, the plugin re-runs the welcome logic and connects them to the premium cohort. No manual step on your side.
03
Course and cohort communities
Use BuddyPress member types such as Mentor and Student. Every new student is auto-connected to all mentors on join, so the cohort starts with a real network instead of a blank directory.
04
Established communities backfilling old members
Members who joined before you set this up are not left behind. The Welcome existing members button runs the same welcome-group logic across everyone in batches, and a progress bar shows it working.
05
Members who want a quieter feed
Give members the Friend Lists tab so they can group friends into Close Friends, Work, or Family. Each list becomes a filter in the activity feed, so they can read one focused stream without the full network's noise.
06
Headless and custom-frontend builders
The bautof/v1 REST API exposes Friend List membership and suggestions, so a custom frontend can read and manage lists without polling admin-ajax. Cross-user requests return 404, so one member never sees another's lists.
See it in action
How BuddyPress Auto Friends looks on your site.
Switch between the four surfaces in the preview: the auto-friendship setup, the member Friend Lists tab, the admin overview, and how notifications behave.
Step 1 of 3
How it works
From signup to a populated profile in three steps.
-
A member registers
A new signup fires the auto-friend engine. The plugin hooks the registration and schedules a background job for that user, so nothing blocks the signup itself.
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Rules decide who connects
Your welcome-group rules pick the matches: Global Friends connects everyone to your hand-picked people, while WordPress roles or BuddyPress member types target a specific cohort. The sources stack into one pool.
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Friendships appear instantly
Connections are created silently by default, with no friend-request or accepted emails. Members who joined before you installed the plugin are covered by one-click batch processing.
What you get
Auto-friendship at registration, plus private friend lists for members.
Every license is the complete plugin. New signups are connected to a welcome group you define by people, roles, or member types; existing members get backfilled with one click; and members get a Friend Lists tab with per-list activity filters. The only difference between tiers is how many sites you can run it on.
01
Auto-friendship on registration
When a new user registers, the plugin schedules a background job and connects them to your welcome group. Friendships are auto-accepted, so no pending request ever appears. The cold-start problem is gone without any admin action per member.
02
Three ways to define the welcome group
Pin specific people as Global Friends (your managers, moderators, onboarding hosts), select members by WordPress role, or select members by BuddyPress member type. The three sources are additive, so you can combine hand-picked hosts with everyone holding the mentor type.
03
Dynamic processing and cleanup
When an existing member gains a new role or member type, the plugin re-runs the welcome logic for them, so an upgrade pulls them into the premium cohort automatically. Turn on cleanup and losing a configured role or type removes only the friendships the plugin created. Manually formed friendships are never touched.
04
One-click backfill for existing members
A Welcome existing members button runs the welcome-group logic across every member who joined before you configured the plugin. It processes in batches (default 100, filterable) and a live progress bar tracks completion. When Action Scheduler is present, large jobs offload to it for more reliable execution.
05
Friend Lists with per-list activity filters
Members get a Friend Lists tab on their profile to group existing friends into named lists like Close Friends or Work. Each list becomes a filter in the activity feed for a focused stream. You can gate the feature to specific roles or member types and cap how many lists each member creates.
06
Friend Lists REST API and admin panel
The bautof/v1 namespace exposes three owner-scoped routes for list members (GET and POST) plus a DELETE and a suggestions endpoint, with cross-user access returning 404. The card-based admin panel under the Wbcom hub carries Overview, Auto-Friendship, Friend Lists, and License tabs.
Made for
Six audiences. One product.
Community managers fighting the cold startMembership site owners with paid tiersCourse and cohort communitiesEstablished communities backfilling old membersMembers who want a quieter feedHeadless and custom-frontend builders
Pricing
Same complete plugin on every tier. Pick how many sites you run.
Every tier ships the full feature set: auto-friendship at registration, the three welcome-group sources, dynamic processing, one-click backfill, Friend Lists, and the REST API. Tiers differ only by the number of sites your license covers. Yearly plans include a year of updates and support; lifetime plans pay once and keep updates forever.
Personal
$49 / year
or $149 lifetime
One community site.
- 1 site
- Auto-friendship by people, roles, or member types
- Friend Lists with per-list activity filters
- BuddyPress 14.x + BuddyBoss Platform support
- 1 year of updates + support
Most popular
Professional
$99 / year
or $299 lifetime
Five sites. Freelancers and small agencies.
- 5 sites
- Auto-friendship by people, roles, or member types
- Friend Lists with per-list activity filters
- BuddyPress 14.x + BuddyBoss Platform support
- 1 year of updates + support
Agency
$129 / year
or $349 lifetime
Unlimited sites for agencies running many community builds.
- Unlimited sites
- Auto-friendship by people, roles, or member types
- Friend Lists with per-list activity filters
- BuddyPress 14.x + BuddyBoss Platform support
- 1 year of updates + support
Before you install
Questions community operators ask.
Answered by the team that maintains the plugin. Anything else, reach out through the contact page.
- 01
Does this require BuddyPress?
Yes. The plugin checks for an active BuddyPress install and the Friends component on activation and on every admin load. If either is missing it self-deactivates and shows a specific notice telling you what to enable. BuddyBoss Platform is supported as well.
- 02
Does it work with BuddyBoss Platform?
Yes. BuddyBoss Platform is detected automatically and the plugin activates BuddyBoss-specific activity hooks. The per-list activity-tab filter needs BuddyBoss Activity Tabs turned on, and the admin shows a targeted notice if they are off.
- 03
Will new members get a flood of friend-request emails?
No. Auto-created friendships are silent by default as of version 1.8.4. No friend-request or accepted-request emails fire on registration or during a bulk sync. Members simply find the connections already in place when they open their profile.
- 04
Can I still send notifications if I want them?
Yes, through code. The bautof_enable_notifications_for_user filter returns false by default and lets a developer opt specific recipients back in. There is no admin toggle for this in 1.8.4, so it is a developer-only escape hatch.
- 05
How do I define who new members get friended with?
Three ways, and they stack. Pin specific people as Global Friends, pick one or more WordPress user roles, or pick one or more BuddyPress member types. Every new signup is connected to the combined pool. The Administrator role is excluded from the role picker by design.
- 06
What about members who joined before I installed this?
The Overview tab has a Welcome existing members button that runs the welcome-group logic across all existing users. It processes in batches of 100 (adjustable with the bautof_friendship_batch_size filter) and a live progress bar tracks it. If a very large run pauses on a memory check, click again to resume.
- 07
What happens when a member's role or type changes?
The plugin re-runs the welcome logic for them, so a member who upgrades to a paid role is connected to that cohort automatically. If you turn on cleanup, losing a configured role or member type removes only the friendships the plugin created. Friendships members formed themselves are never touched.
- 08
What are Friend Lists?
Members get a Friend Lists tab on their BuddyPress profile where they organise their existing friends into named lists like Close Friends, Work, or Family. Each list becomes a filter in the activity feed. Lists are private to the owner, and only existing friends can be added.
- 09
Is there a REST API?
Yes. The bautof/v1 namespace exposes owner-scoped routes to read and manage Friend List members, remove a member, and fetch suggestions. The endpoints enforce list ownership and return 404 for cross-user requests so no data leaks. The JS falls back to admin-ajax if a REST call fails.
- 10
Does it add custom database tables?
No. All plugin state lives in standard WordPress options and usermeta, so there are no custom tables to migrate or clean up. The plugin also has no shortcodes, no custom post types, and no Gutenberg blocks.
Give your next signup friends on day one.
Activate the plugin and it checks for BuddyPress and the Friends component. Set your welcome group by people, role, or member type, then click Welcome existing members to backfill everyone already on the site. The next person who registers opens their profile to connections already in place.