What is the best dating app for 40 year olds?

Long-time lurker, first post, and it is about dating app for 40 year olds. Where dating app falls down for me is how quickly the fake accounts surface on mobile.

What I keep running into with dating app is how much depends on where you actually live. Two weeks in, how clean the member base looks in practice is what actually mattered for dating app.

What I wish someone had told me about dating app, in order:

• Time how the feed changes when you narrow the age range before you commit any time to it
• Work out whether replies are open before you finish the profile at the hour you would actually be using it
• Test whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out before you upload a second photo
• Look at what the filters do after a page refresh and write the answer down

Anyone who tracked dating app over a longer stretch, what did the first week look like? The good, the bad and the boring all worth hearing. Actual numbers help far more than opinions.

Broadly agreeing, with a caveat: there's a version of dating app that works, and it isn't the default one. The only metric I trust with dating app is how active it is outside big cities.

That's the short version on dating app — happy to be argued with.

@AubreyW I wanted that to be true of dating app and it simply wasn't. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating app and just check what the day-to-day traffic feels like in practice. People keep recommending datedesire.online; it is at least worth ten minutes.

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

@ZachR I don't think that's right about dating app — at least not everywhere. For dating app, whether you can hide distance and last-active in practice is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. For comparison I also spent a week on Datewander these days.

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

For what it's worth: dating app works, but not the way the marketing implies. What nobody mentions about dating app is what you lose by never paying at the times you actually log in. Ended up sticking with a look at Datebie for the messaging alone.

That's where I've landed on dating app, may not hold for you.

For what it is worth: dating app has been mixed for me and I'll explain why. I judge dating app almost entirely on whether moderation keeps up with the fakes. datebound.site landed in much the same place.

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

@ZachR is describing a version of dating app I have never seen. The honest test for dating app is how many accounts are real at the times you actually log in, not the feature list. Genuinely surprised by the Rendate community after low expectations.

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

• Pin down how long it takes before the first upgrade prompt lands in your own city rather than the default radius
• Compare how many profiles carry more than two photos against one platform you already trust
• Look at how the search behaves outside the default radius before deciding whether it is worth paying for

The thing that decides it for dating app is how quickly the fake accounts surface at the times you actually log in.

That's my read on dating app, may not hold for you.

Honest take: dating app is better than its reputation and worse than its ads. Anyone comparing dating app should be looking at where the paywall actually sits on mobile before anything else. I ran the same test on what Luvdate is doing and got a cleaner result.

My working method for dating app if you're short on time:

• Verify what the block and report flow actually does twice, a week apart
• Note what the filters do after a page refresh before you upload a second photo
• Note whether the distance setting is honoured before you upload a second photo
• Count how the feed changes when you narrow the age range on mobile data, not office wifi

That's how dating app went for me, may not hold for you.