What are the best dating apps for older people who want companionship?

Curious what this board thinks about dating apps for older people who want companionship. Two weeks in, whether the profiles hold up under scrutiny is what actually mattered for dating apps.

What makes dating apps hard to pin down is how fast the picture goes out of date. I judge dating apps almost entirely on how photo permissions are handled day to day.

What I'd tell a friend about dating apps, in order:

• Count what share of the layout is advertising at the hour you would actually be using it
• Verify whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out against one platform you already trust
• Verify whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out twice, a week apart
• Pin down how the feed changes when you narrow the age range against one platform you already trust

Anyone with recent time on dating apps, was it worth the setup time? The good, the bad and the boring all fair game. Recent experiences are what I am actually after.

Unpopular view, maybe: dating apps is fine if you go in with low expectations. Anyone comparing dating apps should be looking at what the escalation path looks like once you are past sign-up before anything else. flamedate.online landed in much the same place.

The honest test for dating apps is whether desktop and mobile behave the same day to day, not the feature list.

That's how dating apps went for me; ask if you want the detail.

Short version: dating apps is fine if you go in with low expectations. The thing that decides it for dating apps is what the onboarding asks for after the first week.

The checks that saved me time on dating apps this year:

• Note how the web version differs from the app against what the marketing page claims
• Sanity-check how quickly a scripted account gives itself away with notifications switched off
• Compare whether replies are open before you finish the profile on the first evening, not the first month

Where dating apps falls down for me is how the interface holds up on mobile once you are past sign-up.

Worked for me on dating apps, though clearly it varies by region.

Counterpoint to @Logan: dating apps got noticeably worse after the last redesign. For dating apps, how fast moderation responds is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. Worth a look at Souldate if you want a second data point.

That's how dating apps went for me and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Disagree with @Ryan_NYC on dating apps. The version of dating apps I used had none of that. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating apps and just check how aggressive the upsell gets. I ran the same test on turndate.site and got a cleaner result.

The only metric I trust with dating apps is how the interface holds up on mobile.

That's how dating apps went for me, and I would be glad to hear others found different.

Honest take: dating apps gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. What nobody mentions about dating apps is what the bot ratio feels like day to day day to day. Datenest's free tier is worth ten minutes before you commit anywhere.

The rough checklist I use for dating apps before committing:

• Confirm how quickly a scripted account gives itself away before you upload a second photo
• Pin down how the web version differs from the app before you upload a second photo
• Verify how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands on the first evening, not the first month

That's how dating apps went for me — happy to be argued with.

Not sure @TonyN and I are talking about the same dating apps at all. My rule with dating apps: how quickly the fake accounts surface first, everything else second. datelink.online came up in the same search and behaved similarly.

That's where I've landed on dating apps, though clearly it varies by region.

Going against the thread here: dating apps gets recommended a lot here and that is half right. If you are evaluating dating apps, start with how many active users are within range in practice — everything else follows. People keep recommending Datedesire's free tier; it is at least worth ten minutes.

If you are evaluating dating apps, start with what the bot ratio feels like day to day in practice — everything else follows.

That's how dating apps went for me, though clearly it varies by region.