So there are many dating apps out there to find love, friends or something casual. You can find almost any guy or gal out there. Each dating app has their own pros and cons along with ways to meet or talk to others. Some of the more popular apps out there are Bumble, Hinge & Tinder. Each app has different things they use to help you find the right match. I did some research to see what they look for and who might appear. I also surveyed others to see what they thought as well. Some apps were better than others because they matched better or made it more stressful. So let’s go through a few of the more popular apps.
1. Bumble
It has Bumble Date, Bumble BFF, Bumble Bizz. You get six photos along with three profile prompts. There is also the typical about me section. You can fill in your job, education, gender, where you live, where you’re from. Then some extra stuff like height, how often you exercise, star sign, education level, if you smoke, pets, what you’re looking for, kids, religion, politics and voting. It also let’s you link your instagram and spotify. The way this app works is a profile pops up and if you want to know more about the person you can swipe up to read more and see their pictures. If you decide you don’t like them swipe left if you do like them swipe right. If you tap the star in the bottom right hand corner you super like the person. What I personally found stressful was that the ladies must start the conversation. The nice part is that the app gives conversation starters to help you out. The other thing is that there are 24 hour timers for when you match to start a conversation and another to get a response from the other person.
2. Hinge
You get 6 photos with each having the option to write a prompt for it. There are 3 questions you get to answer. You can fill in your job, education, religion, hometown & politics.You also answer gender, age, height, location, ethnicity, children, & family plans. There is a section of vices such as: drinking, smoking, marijuana and drugs. There is even a way to make it a deal breaker so if they don’t match what you want you won’t see them. It also let’s you link your instagram. The “H” on the bottom shows the profiles that you can match with. The heart shows you those who have liked you. The message symbol is your conversations and the person is your profile. When you see a profile you can either click the “X” in the bottom left corner to say no and move on or tap the heart to like the profile. When you click the heart it also lets you leave a message if you want to. The nice thing about this app is that anyone can start the conversation. Hinge also lets you call and video chat the person before you both actually have to meet in person. It makes it a little safer. It also has a part where you can give feedback on how meeting each other went.
3. Tinder
You get nine photos. There is the basic about me section. You can fill in your job, company, school, & where you live. You can also link your instagram and your spotify. There is a spot to put your anthem. You can fill in your gender & sexual orientation. On the top there are several symbols. The fire is where the possible matches are shown. The diamond shows the top 9 picks. Message bubbles are where you chat with the people you match with. The person is your profile. On the bottom the “X” is where you say no and the heart is yes. The star is a super like and the lightning bolt is where you can boost yourself. This app lets anyone message first.
So after going through these, some make you feel more comfortable than others. I personally liked hinge the most because it felt the least like a dating app and gave a safe way to meet people before meeting in person. I didn’t like tinder at all really and I think that is mostly because of all the creeps on the apps and the people just trying to use it for the wrong reasons. Time for a little confession. I was on Hinge for a week over the summer and then I matched with this guy and it was a great thing. I was unsure if I wanted to match or not but the thing that made me try was that the app notified me that we should meet. We talked for a bit and exchanged snapchats and snapped. We decided to use the hinge app to do a ‘Date from Home’ ; it went well and made the whole thing less awkward. We facetimed a few days later and then set up a time to meet in person. Since we had already seen each other and gotten to know each other meeting a person was easy and felt more comfortable. We spent the whole time chatting, spending time together and enjoying ourselves. I was glad that this app gave me this opportunity to meet him!