Gone are the days when Yahoo chat rooms was the only place to select from a pack of hounds when and if you wanted to take the ‘friendship’ out of the virtual world. Then came the honorable Facebook; though Zuckerberg’s intention was to let your immediate classmates and people you know communicate with you, we all have our other messages folder filled with notes from people you never knew, looking for doing friendship with you.
Over the last few years, India saw a growth of matrimonial sites; most men and women were looking for ways to meet prospective brides and grooms with no intention of actually engaging in matrimonial ties. Between then and now, a number of dating sites have been launched in India to give the millennials a true shot at finding the exact kind of person you want to go out on a date with.
Tinder
Tinder has become a household name. The user base is huge and you can get a match almost anywhere. It is fast gaining popularity as the best dating app, owing to the fact that it is accessible anywhere.
The app shows you people who are within the distance limit you have set and leaves you to match with as you like. Swipe right to like, swipe left to ignore. You can send messages to people you like.
Even though this is popular, men tend to get aggressive when denied a date and women use this app ‘just for time-pass’.
Related reading: 8 ways to know whether he loves you or into it just for sex
TrulyMadly
This app claims novelty in asking for verification of identity from users and they assign a verification score to the users. The score is calculated by the cumulative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn, phone number, photo identity, and payment slip. This might be good on paper but most don’t prefer disclosing these to an online app. However, TrulyMadly keeps this info confidential.
TM is mostly for people who are looking for nothing short of a serious relationship. Barring the fact that this app doesn’t ask you to list and describe your family members and caste, it is something like a matrimonial site. Also, it provides a safer platform for women to engage in dating apps. Instead of stating the name of the person, this app shows age, salary, mutual activities you share with people. That way if you do proceed on a date, you know what kind of scene they are looking for.
Aisle
Unlike the other apps, Aisle isn’t free. The app requires you to pay if you want to send a request but you don’t need to pay if you receive one. This feature is somewhat successful in ensuring that only people serious enough can get through and connect with other like-minded people. You have to specify details like weight, height, hobbies and interests, and since the app isn’t free, the chances of finding people who are not just looking for hook-ups are also higher. It can be worked on from laptop and desktops as well, unlike Tinder.
Related reading: 10 relationship memes that define your love life
OkCupid
Like Aisle, OkCupid can also be worked on from desktops. Though not as popular as Tinder, it is famous for its name. Unlike Tinder, this app emphasises writing a good length bio and filters out homosexuals from the heterosexuals, which is a good thing. You have to write summaries about yourself and things like what you are looking for in life, most private thing you are willing to agree to. Though it isn’t mandatory to fill these out, people do it. The more info you write about yourself, the higher the chances of you getting connected with people. Overall, a different experience than other apps.
The downside to it is that the app doesn’t have any filter to block out messages; anyone can leave you a message and the inbox more than often gets spammed by people.
Hinge
If Tinder had any discretionary feature, it would look like Hinge. These are mostly similar but instead of connecting to anyone who lives within a mile radius from you, this app connects you to users who you have common friends with.
There are many dating apps on the rise now. Give them all a swirl to check which one suits you the best. Get cracking!
