A large part of dating now involves dating apps. While there are countless dating apps, there are always the few that you hear about all the time. These are normally Tinder, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagels, OKCupid, Happn, DilMil and Minder. DilMil is more common amongst South Asians, whereas Minder is commonly heard of in the Muslim community (it’s a Muslim Tinder).
What I Did
For about a week, I used all of these apps daily as I would use Tinder (which was long my default). I noted issues I had with the interface, the number of matches that I had, the number of responses that I got, the quality of the matches (judged the next morning after coffee) and the number of interesting conversations I had with these matches. The quality of the matches were calculated on a binary scale for five guys (if there were that many). The quality of conversation was ranked on whether or not I could hold a conversation with them.
Needless to say, this experiment was filled with bias.
What I found
Most of the matches I got were from people on Tinder. This might have been because I was on it for a really long time compared to the other apps. I realized that the low match on DilMil may have been because it seemed to be more of a serious dating website, for people to find someone for the long run.
Tinder
Tinder’s interface was honestly the easiest to use. I’ve had issues with it in the past, where it would not give me any notifications so I would have to actively open the app to see if someone responded to me. However, being a very popular dating app, you get every kind of person on it.
The good: I’ve met some really nice guys through this
The bad: “Well, you’re definitely not ugly,” and of course, a lot more.
The awkward: Because it’s really common, I went home this summer and found a solid half of my old school on it. None of them matched.
Happn
I just don’t understand this one. Its technically supposed to show you the people you cross paths with, but when I opened it right after downloading it, I had five people. I was in my bed and I hadn’t moved. I also expected to see a lot of people that I see on a daily basis on this, but it wasn’t the case.
The good: You know they’re close by.
The bad: I loved the concept, but didn’t enjoy the way they would put all the profiles into tiny boxes that you can look at all at of thm at once. I felt like it made it a little harsher when you were choosing someone because I found myself comparing guys side by side.
OkCupid
So I decided to include this one because, well, it’s the first dating app that I’ve ever heard about. That being said, I know there’s this stigma attached to it. For some reason, no matter how amazing the person seems to be, I feel like I would never really take anything that comes out of this app seriously. It might be the fact that you see people through usernames, and not through their name. I got really addicted to answering those personality questions – but as I kept answering them, my personality traits came out to be “wholesome” and “old-fashioned” which turned me off of the app even more.
The good: I feel like this is one of the apps where people really put effort into their profiles. They had extensive paragraphs on their lives, which was interesting to read.
The bad: OKCupid definitely had more messages than matches, because anyone can message you. I personally hate this, because it drew me away from the app and made me not want to use it, knowing that the few people that I actually want to talk to get buried within several hundred messages. Also, you get emails for every single message.
The awkward: Someone called me sunshine.
DilMil
It’s a dating app for South Asians but seems to be for more serious relationships.
The good: They have these really cute quotes that pop up whenever you open up the app, which gives it a really positive vibe. What I loved about it was that you could specify almost exactly who you wanted. What race, gender, profession etc. That definitely limits things though, because you won’t get to meet someone you never thought of.
The bad: This app has glitches, and seems to not give anyone notifications for messages. Also, you can only choose the countries to swipe in, which means you might swipe right on someone in Texas.
Minder
A dating app for Muslims. Minder has a pretty weird reputation to begin with, and I never understood it until I actually used it. I got a couple of messages telling me I was beautiful and they would like to marry me, and a few asking for a threesome.
The bad: It’s the same thing with DilMil: you can’t choose your location. I ended up swiping right on people in Toronto, which isn’t even in the same country.
The awkward: The marriage propositions.