14 Ways To Tell If A Guy Is Interested In You Or Just Being Friendly

Is there a way to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly?

Decoding the behavior of men has become an entire art form. It’s like we have to look into every little thing just to know if they don’t mind having us around.

Maybe we’re just overthinking?

No. We’re definitely not. All those games they play with us require us to always be on our toes.

That’s also why you need the answers and know how to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly.

You want him to want you just the way you want him. You want him to hold you, kiss you, and tell you all of his deepest, darkest secrets.

Maybe you’ll fall in love with him along the way.

But you can’t let yourself fall deeper before you know if he’s actually interested in you or if he’s just being friendly.

He’s flirting with you one minute, but the next, he doesn’t bother to take a step further from friendship.

That should be a clear sign he doesn’t want anything more, right? 

Wrong.

When a man is flirty with you and shows you mixed signals, it can also be because he himself isn’t sure about your intentions.

But before you make any move you might regret later, pay attention to these signs.

They will help you on your quest to know how to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly.

How To Tell If A Guy Is Interested In You Or Just Being Friendly?

Is there a sure sign a guy is interested in you without him outright telling you?

There is such a fine line between a guy being actually interested in you and him just being polite for whatever reason.

You probably met him in a group setting and that’s exactly why you’re so apprehensive about his intentions. 

That’s why you’re stuck asking yourself: “Does he actually like me or is he just being nice?”

You really want to understand how to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly. There must be a difference between these two!

This article will help you recognize all the subtle signs a man is really interested in you and not just being an overall nice guy.

1. He compliments you a lot

A man who doesn’t have feelings for you wouldn’t pay you a ton of compliments.

Unless he really needs to win your favor, he really doesn’t have to compliment you a lot. 

Being friendly toward someone just means that you’re nice enough to them so that they don’t get offended.

It doesn’t mean that you have to make them love you.

If he was just friendly, he wouldn’t be giving you so many compliments.

When he says that he likes your hair, your outfit, or something you did, it can be seen as a friendly gesture.

However, some next-level compliments about how nice your smile is or how pretty your eyes are, are clear signs of attraction.

Sure, friends compliment each other, but very rarely will your male friends flirt with you by saying how nice your body looks in a certain dress. 

2. He gives you long hugs

Whenever you go up to him to say hi, he always hugs you tightly and doesn’t let go a beat too long. 

Any man who’s into you will find any and every excuse for physical contact. He wants to be near you and he wants to touch you.

There no better moment for that without seeming creepy but to hug you.

That’s exactly why he hugs you for so long. He doesn’t have to do that if he’s just being friendly with you.

He doesn’t have to hug you that long – he could have just given you a quick side hug and be done with it. 

But this man makes the conscious decision to hug you for longer than necessary just to be close to you for a little while. 

Sometimes, it might even seem like he’s trying to communicate some type of message through that hug.

You don’t have to wonder whether the guy is interested in you or just being friendly.

Especially not if he adds a little kiss into your hairline during that hug.

3. He makes a lot of eye contact

Eye contact is one of the most obvious signs someone is interested in you. His body language never lies.

You might think that this is an exaggeration because eye contact is so common.

Whenever we meet someone new, have a conversation with someone, or even pass a random person on the street, our eyes constantly meet another’s.

That isn’t what I’m talking about. This is much different.

It’s those lingering stares that you two give each other. 

When he’s standing on the other side of a room and your eyes meet and he holds your stare.

It’s all those times he broke eye contact just to let them roam your body and then lock eyes with you again.

Are his eyes a little hooded whenever he’s holding eye contact?

He doesn’t seem to look away for quite a while and you feel like he’s seducing you with his eyes only.

Well, I’m going to tell you that that’s exactly what he’s trying to you. His eyes are carrying a message for you, and it’s a very clear one.

Want to how to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly? Look into his eyes, and you’ll find the answer for sure.

4. He’s trying to get to know you

When a man is being friendly with you, he’ll ask you questions that will only give him the basic information about you. 

But when a guy is into you and romantically interested in you, he’ll want to know everything about you. He just loves listening and talking to you.

He’s not just being a nice guy by asking you about your family, siblings, and relationship with your parents.

Someone who is just being friendly doesn’t usually go to such lengths.

When you hear him ask for your opinion on various topics, he’s actually trying to get to know you.

He wants to know your thoughts, what your opinions are on different things, and how your brain works.

Men do this in order to figure out how compatible you two are. 

How to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly?

Well, just know that a friendly guy wouldn’t go so in-depth when it comes to your personal life.

This is one of the telltale signs he’s actually interested in you.

5. He treats you differently

I would even dare to say that you’re his biggest priority – let’s not go there yet. 

You can see that he’s treating you differently and you probably don’t know how to react to it.

He may ask you to hang out without any of your mutual friends present.

If he’s the kind of guy that’s not one to do that, especially not with girls, then you can pretty much guarantee he’s not just being friendly.

He Snapchats you more often than the others, texts you constantly, and might have even sneaked in a few phone calls.

This man is everything but uninterested.

If you want to judge whether this guy is interested in you or just being friendly, pay close attention to the way he’s treating you.

You’ll know he’s into you once you start pinpointing all the things he’s doing differently when he’s with you.

You are special to him and for whatever reason, he’s doing it all to impress you.

A man who is just being friendly toward you would rather be focused on pleasing the rest of the friend group.

6. He asks you about your relationship status

When a man asks you about your relationship status, it’s not really one of the subtle ways to figure out if a woman is available and if he has a shot with her.

It’s a good sign that he’s really interested in you.

He wants to know if there’s any chance of starting a romantic relationship with you.

When a guy’s friendly toward you, he doesn’t have to know if you’re in a relationship or not.

A guy asks this only when he’s really interested in being with you.

If he feels particularly brave at that moment, he might want to know about your relationship history as well.

He may ask you about your exes, why you’re single right now, and what you’re looking for in a guy. 

7. He makes a point of telling you he’s single

“Hey, you know, I’m single,” isn’t really a conversation starter. Especially not when you’re hanging out with a man who’s just being friendly toward you.

Want to know how to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly?

Is he making it abundantly clear that he’s single and available?

Does he tell you how lonely he is and how much he’d like to get back into the dating scene?

These are very obvious signs he’s interested in you. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn’t be talking about these things with you.

Men aren’t that honest about their issues with people they don’t know well enough. He doesn’t have to tell you about his love life to be friendly. 

Nonetheless, if he still talks to you about it and makes it abundantly clear that he’s single, he might want you to make the first move. 

He’s definitely looking for your reaction.

8. You have his undivided attention

This one really doesn’t need a lot of explanation. A friendly man wouldn’t give you his undivided attention.

When you’re out with friends and all sitting at one table, you might realize that he’s always listening to you, very intensely.

He makes a show out of all the attention he’s giving you.

He’s trying to continue the conversation by asking different questions, he nods along when you’re talking, and he’s constantly looking at you.

You might have even witnessed a situation where someone else tried to talk to him or ask him to dance (or anything along those lines, really), but he refused.

His excuse? Well obviously, he’s talking to you.

Someone who’s friendly would just talk enough with you to make you feel comfortable. He wouldn’t hold such long conversations with you.

He’s interested in you – it’s as clear as day.

9. He’s trying really hard to impress you

You know that men always try to impress the girl they’re after, so if he’s trying to impress you too, this is your cue. 

Did he invite you to watch him play a game of a sport he’s very good at? Has he shown off some of his card tricks?

Men who are just your friends don’t feel the need to impress you.

He wouldn’t find the need to show off his amazing skills unless he wants you to like him.

So when you see a man going out of his way to try to impress you, it’s because he wants something more with you.

He doesn’t want to just be a good friend anymore.

He’s definitely flirting with you. 

If he’s your best friend and you’re used to his little escapades, watch how he reacts when you don’t want to go to one of his sports games. 

Does he get upset? Does he say that you’re his good luck charm? 

Girl, that right there is a man who wants to be everything but friends with you.

10. He changes his physical appearance

You told him that a new haircut would make him look much better and the next day he appeared with freshly done hair.

You were the one who said that red looks nice on him and now he’s wearing red every occasion he can.

These things aren’t something a nice friend would do for you.

It doesn’t matter how much of a nice guy he is, unless he’s interested in you, he won’t change his appearance for you.

Would you change your appearance for a man that you don’t want to impress? Of course not, because it’s a subtle way of flirting.

11. Flirty teasing and banter

Men have carried that whole “teasing the girl you like” mentality from the playgrounds into their adult lives. They never really grow out of that phase.

Every word he says to you is supposed to tease you and inspire some type of banter between the two of you. 

How to know if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly? Look for the flirty banter. I promise you, this is a bulletproof sign!

It can get annoying sometimes.

Just like when you were a kid and the boys would tease you. It was a real pain and it never made you think of them as cute.

When you grow older, you learn how to reciprocate the teasing so it becomes much more fun. 

He’s trying to make you laugh more than anything else, so he’s probably teasing the people around you two as well.

The more you two banter, the more he likes you.

I don’t know the psychology behind this, but every man I have ever met has said that this is their main way of flirting.

12. He’s initiating physical contact

Flirting with someone over social media is one thing, but doing so when out in a group setting is a whole other ballgame.

When you’re with other people, you can’t really flirt with each other. Even if you’re an ace at flirting, you can’t really make out the signs he’s into you.

How to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly? Look at how much he’s touching you.

Does he use any and every excuse just to touch you? We’ve talked about this briefly when we said that he hugs you a lot.

However, this physical contact goes beyond that. Whenever you’re spending time together, his hands are on you.

Removing something from your face, touching your arm when he’s talking, holding a hand on your back when you’re walking through a crowd – he does it because he’s into you.

It doesn’t matter how friendly a guy is, if he’s not attracted to you, he wouldn’t do this.

I know that it can be quite confusing if a guy is constantly touching you yet makes no move to make things official between the two of you.

He probably hasn’t even spoken about his interest in you. 

Yet the signs that he’s not just friendly but actually extremely interested in you are all there.

Don’t let yourself overthink the situation to the point where you start believing that he only wants you for your body.

Until you actually talk things through with him, you might not know his true intentions.

13. He’s protective over you

Men love to play the hero even when they don’t have to.

At times, you might not even need saving because you’re a strong and independent woman, but he insists on helping you out.

How to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly? One way is to see if he’s protective over you.

Does he insist on carrying your bags for you so you don’t have to? Does he run to your aid when he sees a dodgy guy approach you?

A man who’s interested in you, a man who likes you, will do anything to protect you. That’s a man’s basic need – to protect and provide for women. 

Their protectiveness goes beyond just physical things.

He will try to comfort you when you’re having a tough time. He’ll be there for you when you’re sick.

If he sees that you’re not yourself, he’ll ask what’s wrong until you decide to tell him. 

It’s just his primal need to keep a woman safe. However, he’ll only do this for the woman he has feelings for.

He wouldn’t do this just for any friend, but for a woman he’s interested in.

14. He’ll get a tad jealous

How to tell if a guy is interested in you or just being friendly? Girl, if he’s jealous, he’s yours.

So, you’re out and you end up flirting with a guy who approached you. Why?

Well, if this friend of yours isn’t going to make a move, you might as well have fun.

However, you don’t get to enjoy yourself for too long because this friend is suddenly there next to you, to scare off the other guy.

That, or you find him extremely grumpy once you return to the table.

He might even make snark remarks that send sparks through your entire body.

You know that a man who’s jealous is also one who’s taken a lot of interest in you.

Of course, you know that sick, possessive jealousy is toxic and nothing good can ever come of it.

But when he’s just a little bit jealous, it shows how much he’s affected by the thought of losing you to some other guy.

In conclusion…

Understanding men isn’t as easy as we all want it to be.

They aren’t always that straightforward with their wants and needs, and especially not their feelings.

They keep it all locked up until we see through all the signs they’ve been sending us all this time.

He may be scared that you two won’t work out as a couple, so he sends you little signals here and there just to make sure you’re on the same page before he makes his official move.

If you see all of the signs listed here, you might want to put the poor guy out of his misery and approach him. 

I know that we’ve been taught to wait for the man to make the first move, but he’s obviously interested in you – he just needs a little encouragement.

This isn’t a man who’s just friendly toward you, he actually likes you a lot.

What’s the worst thing that can happen? He says no?

Well, either way, this man is going to be head over heels for you in no time, so you better play your cards right.