Valentine’s Day is almost upon us! While all the single people moan loudly, remember that there’s still time to find love (or even something casual) before the holidays.
With that in mind, here are some of the greatest (and most acceptable) dating apps to try. My recommendations are mostly based on my own female dating-app experiences. Make what you will of it.
Bumble
Bumble is like Tinder for women, but with a timer. Women must communicate first on Bumble, and if the guy does not respond within 24 hours, the potential match is lost. Because arbitrary time limits were the one thing missing from my love life.
The timer is intended to stimulate contact, and some individuals genuinely like it. However, if you’re a procrastinator, Bumble might not be for you. Bumble also seems to weed out the slightly insecure males because women must message first. The rate of overconfident males, on the other hand, is higher than I’ve seen on other applications. Bumble has a BFF option as well, but since this isn’t a dating app gallery, I’ll reserve it for another time.
Hinge
Hinge ultimately won me over, and in 2019 it became my favorite dating app. Initially, the app concentrated on shared Facebook connections and mutual acquaintances between you and a potential relationship, which was a gimmick I never bought into. However, it has since shifted its focus away from this model. Hinge was created with the goal of making user profiles more entertaining (and useful) than those found on apps like Tinder. You have the choice of presenting a wealth of helpful information that may be deal breakers, such as your political beliefs, religion, frequency of alcohol intake, and even your desire to have children in the future. Hinge’s prompts also aid in the creation of more engaging profiles. Hinge’s current slogan is “Designed to be Deleted,” and if you’re seeking for a serious relationship, this is the dating app I’d recommend.
Tinder
Tinder has you covered whether you’re looking for a hookup or an LTR (long-term romance). It’s essentially the first stop for people who are new to the dating scene. You should probably be swiping where everyone else is swiping if you want to play the odds when it comes to online dating.
On the plus side, the profiles are brief, allowing you to make quick decisions. The downside is that short profiles make it harder to figure out what people are looking for. Knowing very little about a person can also make initial messaging more challenging. You’ll need to wade through a sea of profiles, which makes it easy to pass over people you might have given a chance under different circumstances.
OkCupid
How you perplex me, OkCupid. Friends of mine have met their husbands through OkCupid. OkCupid was the source of my most recent meaningful relationship. In reality, I’ve been using OkCupid for almost 11 years, on and off. Profiles are much more detailed than those on most dating sites, and if you answer a seemingly endless series of questions, you’ll get a reasonable Match/Enemy percentage ratio on your profile to help you gauge compatibility.
OkCupid has become more like Tinder in the previous year, focusing more on swiping and removing the opportunity to communicate a user without first matching with them. You can still send a message; however, unless you match, it will not appear in the recipient’s inbox. Who doesn’t enjoy sending a nice letter to someone who may or may not read it? However, OkCupid has stated that these adjustments have helped to reduce the quantity of offensive messages received by users, which may not be the worst thing in the world.