So at what point is a 'connection' really made?

The movie her certainly explores the idea that a connection with a non-human entity can seem authentic.

Humans seem to have capacity to create profound connections with inanimate objects, to even turn these objects into companions (think "Watson" and Tom Hanks in Cast Away)

At what point is a connection "really" made? I guess it all depends on what you think "really" means. I take "connection" to mean a sense of a shared and collaborative reality.

If you mean human to human, the point when you feel connected can be immediate - first glance - or it can be gradual through shared experiences.

Our connections can give us a sense of being useful, valued, cherished, loved. Our connections help us create our identity and sense of who we are.

Luckily, there are many ways of connecting to other humans. Like Hubski.

  Ah, love, let us be true
  To one another! for the world, which seems
  To lie before us like a land of dreams,
  So various, so beautiful, so new,
  Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
  Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
  And we are here as on a darkling plain
  Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
  Where ignorant armies clash by night.

final stanza of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)