Can your smartphone find you love? There are so many dating apps out there that it can be confusing to know which to choose. For the luddites among you, here’s a quick primer on a few of the more popular ones. (We can’t help if you still use a landline, sorry.)
Grindr
The daddy of all dating apps. Released in 2009 for the gay community, Grindr forever changed the culture of dating and hookups. Harnessing the magic of geolocation, users browse profile pictures and exchange messages with other users nearby. Grindr is currently used in 192 countries around the world and boasts two million daily users.
Tinder
“Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Grindr for, like, straight people?” hetero singles collectively sighed in 2011. Talk about wish fulfilment! Tinder launched in September 2012 and ignited like … well … literal tinder. Your Facebook profile provides the particulars (location, age, photos) and the app does the rest, offering a never-ending parade of dream girls and dream boys for you to judge based on looks. Swipe right to “like” them. Swipe left to reject without consequence. If you mutually like (or “super like”) each other, you can chat through the app and meet up IRL (that’s “in real life”). Tinder was initially considered a hookup app, but it’s since evolved into part of a balanced dating strategy. Tinder weddings and Tinder babies are far from unheard of and 50 million users swipe away on the app each month.