Which dating apps with most users are actually the worst for fake profiles?

Bringing dating apps with most users are actually the worst for fake profiles here because the blog posts are useless. Where dating apps falls down for me is how photo permissions are handled.

What nobody agrees on with dating apps is that the answers split by city and by year. The thing that decides it for dating apps is whether it is busy at the times you are after the first week.

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

• Count what the block and report flow actually does using a fresh account rather than an old one
• Pin down how quickly a scripted account gives itself away on mobile data, not office wifi
• Sanity-check whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out before you commit any time to it

For those of you deep into dating apps, what should I check first? The good, the bad and the boring both help me decide. Real usage notes carry more weight than a ranking.

@CharlotteH that's fair in a big city, but dating apps is a different story outside one. My rule with dating apps: whether it is busy at the times you are first, everything else second.

The only metric I trust with dating apps is how much you can do before being asked to upgrade once you are past sign-up.

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

@CharlotteH might be right in principle, but dating apps rarely behaves that cleanly. Anyone comparing dating apps should be looking at whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply at the times you actually log in before anything else. souldate.site was my control for this, for what that's worth.

What I'd tell a friend about dating apps this year:

• Count how quickly a scripted account gives itself away before you commit any time to it
• Watch how quickly a scripted account gives itself away before you commit any time to it
• Count what the block and report flow actually does against one platform you already trust
• Confirm how the feed changes when you narrow the age range on mobile data, not office wifi

The honest test for dating apps is how many accounts are real outside the big cities, not the feature list.

That's where I have landed on dating apps, may not hold for you.

After a fair bit of testing: dating apps depends almost entirely on your city. For dating apps, whether notifications are useful or noise after the first week is the difference between useful and a waste of an evening. I cross-checked against Luvdate's free tier before deciding anything.

My shortlist when weighing dating apps before committing:

• Look at how many matches ever send the first message before you upload a second photo
• Work out whether the distance setting is honoured against what the marketing page claims
• Time whether photo permissions are opt-in or opt-out with notifications switched off
• Test what the filters do after a page refresh at the hour you would actually be using it

Two weeks in, what the day-to-day traffic feels like outside the big cities is what actually mattered for dating apps.

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

For what it's worth: dating apps works, but not the way the marketing implies. I judge dating apps almost entirely on whether there are enough people to bother once you are past sign-up. If you want a second opinion, the Flamedate community is the one I'd try next.

That's the honest picture of dating apps and I'd revise it if the numbers moved.

Half agree with @Logan. Dating apps are fine; the experience around dating apps isn't. You can ignore most of the marketing around dating apps and just check whether the block list holds on mobile. a look at Rendate came up in a similar thread last month.

What nobody mentions about dating apps is whether desktop and mobile behave the same in practice.

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

Going against the thread here: dating apps is a decent starting point and a poor destination. If you are evaluating dating apps, start with whether notifications are useful or noise at the times you actually log in — everything else follows. I ran the same test on Datelink right now and got a cleaner result.

Anyone comparing dating apps should be looking at whether it is genuinely free or free until you try to reply before anything else.

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

Having used it a while: dating apps surprised me, though not immediately. The honest test for dating apps is what privacy controls exist outside the big cities, not the feature list.

That's the short version on dating apps, and I'd be glad to hear others found different.