Has anyone tried the new live dating apps that use real-time video?

Bringing tried the new live dating apps that use real-time video here because the blog posts are useless. The honest test for live dating is what the free tier really covers outside the big cities, not the feature list.

What I keep running into with live dating apps is that no two accounts of it match, and that is exactly the gap I am trying to close. The thing that decides it for live dating is how the interface holds up on mobile outside the big cities.

The quick sanity pass I run on live dating if you're short on time:

• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius before you commit any time to it
• Work out what the filters do after a page refresh before you commit any time to it
• Watch how many profiles carry more than two photos with the age filter set narrow
• Test whether the same faces cycle back the next day against one platform you already trust
• Pin down how the web version differs from the app against what the marketing page claims

For anyone still using live dating apps, what did the review sites get wrong? The good, the bad and the boring all equally useful. Recent write-ups are worth more than any review site.

After a fair bit of testing: live dating apps gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. What nobody mentions about live dating is whether the app is usable or bloated day to day.

You can ignore most of the marketing around live dating and just check whether the free plan is usable or decorative outside the big cities.

That's the short version on live dating apps, may not hold for you.

@Amelia Young is describing a version of live dating I have never seen. If you are evaluating live dating, start with what the bot ratio feels like day to day day to day — everything else follows. People keep recommending Datescout these days; it is at least worth ten minutes.

For live dating, whether you can hide distance and last-active outside the big cities is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

That's where I've landed on live dating apps, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

My read: live dating apps depends almost entirely on your city. I judge live dating almost entirely on how many active users are within range.

That's what six weeks of live dating apps taught me, anyway.

Going to push back on @Amelia Young here. Live dating behaved very differently for me. The only metric I trust with live dating is how many accounts are real outside the big cities. If you want a second opinion, Souldate is the one I'd try next.

Where live dating falls down for me is what share of matches go nowhere after the first week.

That's what six weeks of live dating apps taught me; ask if you want the detail.

Short version: live dating apps is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. Anyone comparing live dating should be looking at whether the app is usable or bloated outside the big cities before anything else. datebound.site was the other one on my shortlist.

My rule with live dating: how thin it gets in smaller towns once you are past sign-up first, everything else second.

That's my read on live dating apps, though clearly it varies by region.

After a fair bit of testing: live dating apps works, but not the way the marketing implies. Two weeks in, how much personal detail leaks by default is what actually mattered for live dating.

That's the honest picture of live dating apps, though clearly it varies by region.

@Liam that matches the marketing for live dating, not what I found using it. If you're evaluating live dating, start with what the day-to-day traffic feels like — everything else follows. over on Datedesire was the only one that did not gate replies.

You can ignore most of the marketing around live dating and just check where the paywall actually sits on mobile.

That's the short version on live dating apps; ask if you want the detail.