Everyone loves a little gossip, and the new app that everyone is gossiping about is the Tea app. Designed to help young women navigate the dating world, Tea Dating Advice is a strictly female-only app where women can share their experiences with guys through posts and comments, as well as green and red flags. Tea has taken the format of social media to make a safe space for women.
How Does It Work?
At first, I thought this idea was genius. No more wasting time getting to know guys and waiting for them to show you their true colors. Instead, just search them up and see how many red flags they have. As someone who’s been cheated on before, I’m also in full support of Tea catching a lot of slimy men.
While the experience you had with a man may not necessarily be everyone’s experience, it’s helpful for single women to get a sense of who a person is before they meet in person. Let’s be real, if a guy you’re talking to has 50 red flags and 30 comments all saying the same thing, he might be someone to avoid.
The app also has a feature where women can easily catch a “catfish” before a date. The app uses reverse image searching to ensure that the man that you’ve been speaking to online is actually who you think he is. Users can also complete background checks and view sex offender maps to steer clear of any nefarious individuals. Overall, I think the app can be helpful to women across the country, especially to young female college students.
The Potential Downsides
There have been a multitude of privacy concerns over Tea. Since everything women post on the app is under an anonymous username, there’s a higher likelihood of fake accusations and embarrassing details being made up about others. This is where the conversation of misuse and defamation comes into play.
If women begin using the app for revenge on past partners, the information can be extremely misleading to others seeking genuine advice. Who checks the legitimacy of the comments? No one does unless the comment has been reported.
Not only has defamation been a serious issue with the app, but data breaches have been as well. In July 2025, Tea “suffered a major data leak,” according to NPR. To be accepted into the app, it used to require a photo of a state ID as well as a selfie to ensure the user was female. These photos, as well as private DMs between women, were leaked in the data breach. Now, the app only requires a selfie. Though I question how effective this system is now, as I personally know several men who got approved.
Women using the app must be wary that not every comment is going to be completely factual. In reality, some of those positive comments or green flags may just be men themselves. While the app may help some girls escape before they endure a lifetime of trauma at the hands of some of these college men, the privacy and legitimacy concerns must be taken into account.
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