If your For You Page has been anything like mine lately, you’ve probably seen girls talking about the Tea app—the women-only platform where you can rate and review guys you’ve dated. Think Yelp, but instead of reviewing your local coffee shop, you’re reviewing your situationship.
The concept? Help other girls avoid walking red flags and celebrate the rare green ones.
At first glance, it sounds kind of genius. Dating in 2025 is already a full-time job, and anything that makes it feel safer is a win. On Tea, you can search a guy’s name or number to see if someone else has dated him, ghosted him, or caught him texting three girls at once.
For a lot of women, especially college students navigating the chaos of dating apps, it feels like a built-in safety net, and a reminder that we’re looking out for each other. For college girls like me, who are constantly hearing “be careful” every time we go out, it’s nice to have an app that actually tries to make dating safer.
And honestly, sometimes it really does help. One of my friends actually found out through Tea that the guy she’d been seeing “casually” had a whole girlfriend back home. When she searched his name, there were already a few posts about him, and one was from the girlfriend herself (be careful when trusting these frat boys).
They ended up connecting through the app, sharing screenshots, and piecing together the whole story. It was messy, but in the end, they both decided it best to disassociate from the guy, and my friend said she felt relieved to finally know the truth and gain necessary clarity.
But, like actual tea, spill too much and things can get messy.
Because posts are anonymous, there’s no real way to fact-check what’s being said. Some reviews are honest warnings, but others can come off as petty or exaggerated. One bad date and suddenly someone’s labeled a “red flag” forever. It kind of feels like a modern-day rumor mill, and that can be just as toxic as the guys the app is trying to expose.
If you don’t take it too seriously, though, sometimes it can lead to funny, unserious interactions. I’ve overheard many girls use it as an opener when they first meet a guy: “I saw you had 20 red flags on the Tea App. Are they true?” The funniest part, though, is how seriously some guys take it.
Some even have their female friends make accounts to defend them in the comment sections. In these cases, you can clearly tell when it’s one person saying they’re a great guy against 15 comments saying he’s the worst guy they’ve ever met.
Of course, no viral app comes without a little drama. And in Tea’s case, the plot twist was straight out of a Black Mirror episode. Over the summer, thousands of images and posts were leaked after the app was hacked. For an app that’s all about safety, the data breach was a huge wake-up call.The irony of an app built to protect women accidentally putting their info at risk wasn’t lost on anyone.
At its best, Tea is about empowerment and community. It is girls helping girls stay safe in a dating scene that can feel like a minefield. But it also shows how easy it is for “sharing experiences” to turn into public shaming or misinformation.
So sure, sip the tea, read the posts, and use the app if it makes you feel safer—but don’t forget to trust your own judgment, too. Because sometimes the hottest gossip isn’t worth getting burned over.