Dating is tricky! And it’s even trickier in a pandemic. The chances of meeting someone new are slim to none, but with the power of the internet, we have dating apps that solve this problem.
For this article, I will share my experience as a straight white woman on three large dating apps; Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble.
Now, if this is your first time in the online dating scene, Tinder seems like the right move, it may be the most well-known app out of all of them, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best. By far, it’s the most glitchy and slow app out of all of them. Personally, I don’t have any pros for this app, but I have lots of cons.
To start, the selection is mediocre, the spam of annoying/crude messages was way too many. That mixed in with it being the most glitchy app on my phone just didn’t do it for me, and it was deleted after a week. The only way I’d recommend this app is if you’re looking for a quick hookup from an alright guy at best. Definitely, if you’re looking for a relationship beyond a 2004 Honda Civic, this is not the right app for you.
Onto personally one of my favorite apps, Hinge, it definitely has its cons, but in the end, I find the best quality guys on here. The app is definitely designed to force you into a relationship. With only around 20ish likes a day, it definitely helps you build a connection and get to know someone without overwhelming you with multiple potential options. On the quality of guys, I’d say this is one of the only apps where I’d see myself dating these matches for a while. Also, be prepared for men from other countries. Surprisingly, there are quite a few, but if you’re like me, you don’t have a problem with a good accent!
To get on with the cons, I’d say this app is very technical and strategic. I feel that most of your most compatibles are not, and it’s just the app trying to get you to give someone a chance. Now, none of this is fact-based, but I just noticed a few patterns. If you open the app and don’t respond to every message, I feel they hold onto your new messages until you message everyone back (it’s true, I swear). One thing different from Tinder and Bumble is that Hinge has ethnicity filters. You can take your own stance on how you feel about that, but it has caused a bit of controversy.
Bumble is an interesting one to discuss because the inner girl boss in me wants this app to be my favorite. I want to support such an iconic girl boss, but something about Bumble just doesn’t work for me. I love so many of the features like including horoscopes, nice layout, and the great confidence boost with so many matches, but I just never want to go on it.
Frankly, sometimes the mass amount of matches is just overwhelming. Every man I found from there was just plain boring. Also, somehow on that app, it made my dating pool so small! I mean, one month I was seeing one boy and then a few months later I started seeing his TA, like yikes! Somehow, I kept on running into people who were just slightly out of my inner circle, and let me tell you that got messy fast.
I know Bumble’s selling feature is that the women message first, and to some women, I am sure that is great, but I think you can tell a lot about a guy’s character by what he messages you first. I would say this app is perfect for girls who do not know what they want.
Bumble has a wide variation of relationship outcomes, but I would put it in the casual relationship box. Definitely, out of all the apps, Bumble holds the average for the hottest guys. Overall, in my experience, nothing good comes from Bumble.
Dating is based on preferences! It is all up to you to decide what type of relationship you want. My best advice is to try all the apps and then figure out which one is for you. I mean, why not? What else do you have to do during a pandemic!