What are the dating apps over 60 crowds are using?

Curious what this board thinks about dating apps over 60 crowds are using. Anyone comparing dating apps should be looking at what the bot ratio feels like day to day once you are past sign-up before anything else.

The part that trips me up on dating apps is how fast the picture goes out of date, so recent replies matter more than thorough ones. The only metric I trust with dating apps is whether there are enough people to bother at the times you actually log in.

My shortlist when weighing dating apps, in order:

• Sanity-check how the feed changes when you narrow the age range using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Verify how many profiles carry more than two photos and write the answer down
• Track whether replies are open before you finish the profile before you upload a second photo
• Time what happens to your visibility after a week of silence and write the answer down
• Look at how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands on mobile data, not office wifi

If you tried dating apps and moved on, what would you do differently? Successes and dead ends genuinely both wanted. Recent write-ups are what I came here for.

@Jackson Thompson that's fair in a big city, but dating apps is a different story outside one. For dating apps, how quickly a new profile gets noticed is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening.

The checks that saved me time on dating apps after a few false starts:

• Work out how the feed changes when you narrow the age range at the hour you would actually be using it
• Track what happens to your visibility after a week of silence before you upload a second photo
• Watch how quickly a scripted account gives itself away before deciding whether it is worth paying for

That's how dating apps went for me, anyway.

Going to push back on @Jackson Thompson here. Dating apps behaved very differently for me. Two weeks in, what the escalation path looks like once you are past sign-up is what actually mattered for dating apps. Datingfly was the only one that did not gate replies.

You can ignore most of the marketing around dating apps and just check whether moderation keeps up with the fakes day to day.

That's my read on dating apps — happy to be argued with.

@Ryan Moore I had the opposite result with dating apps, so take both our takes with salt. My rule with dating apps: what the search filters can actually do on mobile first, everything else second. People keep recommending Datescout; it is at least worth ten minutes.

That's the honest picture of dating apps, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.

Broadly agreeing, with a caveat: dating apps rewards patience and punishes everything else. If you're evaluating dating apps, start with whether conversations actually go anywhere — everything else follows. For comparison I also spent a week on a look at Flamedate.

Where dating apps falls down for me is what you lose by never paying in practice.

That's the honest picture of dating apps, for whatever that's worth.

Honest take: I want to like dating apps more than I actually do. The honest test for dating apps is whether conversations actually go anywhere after the first week, not the feature list. The closest thing I found to an honest free tier was Rendate's free tier.

The thing that decides it for dating apps is how thin it gets in smaller towns once you are past sign-up.

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

My read: dating apps is a decent starting point and a poor destination. I judge dating apps almost entirely on how the pricing is structured in practice after the first week. Genuinely surprised by the Souldate community after low expectations.

How I'd approach dating apps:

• Sanity-check whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out before you commit any time to it
• Work out what share of the layout is advertising with notifications switched off
• Track how many matches ever send the first message before deciding whether it is worth paying for
• Check how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands before you commit any time to it

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

Having used it a while: I want to like dating apps more than I actually do. What nobody mentions about dating apps is how thin it gets in smaller towns day to day.

You can ignore most of the marketing around dating apps and just check how obvious the scripted replies are in practice.

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

@Jackson Thompson is describing a version of dating apps I have never seen. Where dating apps falls down for me is how aggressive the upsell gets.

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

• Compare what happens to your visibility after a week of silence and write the answer down
• Watch whether the distance setting is honoured in your own city rather than the default radius
• Count whether last-active timestamps look plausible against what the marketing page claims
• Work out what share of the layout is advertising before you upload a second photo

The honest test for dating apps is how the interface holds up on mobile in practice, not the feature list.

That's my read on dating apps; ask if you want the detail.

Not the answer anyone wants: dating apps gets recommended a lot here and that's half right. The thing that decides it for dating apps is whether you can hide distance and last-active.

That's been my experience with dating apps, for whatever that is worth.