About the verb ’aimer’

[left bison]

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About the verb ’aimer’

[covert charm]

Je t'aime bien is the equivalent of "I like you", for the most part.

It probably carries a negative meaning even stronger than the english version.

[floral lily]

For people, "aimer" is essentially the strongest you can get. Adding anything to it softens it quite a bit, and usually removes romantic connotations.
For objects and other things, "aimer bien" is roughly equivalent to "quite like"

[covert charm]

It's like in english, when you say that "tu aimes bien X", depending on the person, the narrative or the context it could be perceived as very negative, but for something that was clearly platonic with no ambiguity, it works well to describe friendship.

You could always go for "Je t'admire" (very strange, but let's keep it for the record), or "Je t'adore" or "j'ai beaucoup d'estime pour toi", etc etc.

[umbral basin]

Just so I understand:

Aimer (person): love
Aimer bien (person): like
Aimer (object): like
Aimer bien (object): quite like/like a lot

[covert charm]

Something like that, but as in english, there will be cases where it could be ambiguous.

For the most parts, when you're talking about people, ask yourself if you could replace it with "Je t'apprécie/I appreciate you" or by "You're an amazing friend", and cut the ambiguity if there could be one