The best dating apps to use in 2020
The upside of dating in 2020? The pre-pandemic Tube crush you’re hoping to match with on Bumble probably has more time for swiping. With Covid bringing fewer opportunities to meet people IRL, dating apps are having their biggest boom yet.
But which one to commit to? Your friends say it’s all about Hinge, but Badoo has the most worldwide users (it’s a numbers game) and Bumble claims to be kinder, letting women make the first move.
Plus there’s a whole range of shiny new apps to try: Londoner Sanjay Panchal has just launched the world’s first anti-ghosting app (finally!) and The Intro literally schedules your dates for you and picks a spot - perfect if lockdown has made you lazy with organising.
Here’s a guide to the top dating apps to use in 2020.
Badoo: to meet anyone
Your pals might tell you everyone’s on Hinge but Badoo is the biggest dating app in the world. The app was launched by Russian tech entrepreneur Andrey Andreev in 2009, three years before Tinder, and it now has more than 380 million customers, operates in 190 countries and is available in 47 different languages.
In 2017, Badoo launched a facial recognition feature which allows users to upload an image of a person they like, whether that’s a celebrity and someone they know, and find other Badoo users who look similar.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Bumble: to meet the nice guy
Bumble’s USP is that it challenges female users to make the first move, basically eliminating the bro-culture of other dating platforms. In traditional apps, when women match with guys, the unspoken rule is that they hesitate to initiate a conversation for fear of seeming weird or desperate. On Bumble, women have no choice in the matter.
Its founder Whitney Wolfe told us that her feminist matchmaking tool is designed to reset the “heteronormative rules in our current landscape”, giving women the power to message their matches without stigma.
The bloke you’re likely to meet on here? Someone who’s on board with the idea of evening out the romantic playing field. Typically, those guys are keepers.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Bristlr: if you like your men hairy (or you are a hairy man)
Do you like beards? Do you sport a beard? Do you exclusively date men with beards? Then listen up, because this is the app for you. Bristlr is basically a niche dating pool of exclusively bearded men, and people who want to date them.
People of all genders and sexual orientations are welcome. It’s even open to those who are simply beard-curious.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Chappy: for Mr Right
Chappy made headlines last year as the new gating app for gay men. Made in Chelsea’s Ollie Locke co-founded the app, alongside Jack Rogers and Max Cheremkhin. Chappy is also backed by Whitney Wolfe Herd, the CEO of Bumble.
The app has a ‘Chappy Scale’, offering Mr. Right as well as Mr.Right now. As well, it wants to make gay dating a safe space, by verifying users through Facebook and only featuring images of a Chappy user’s face.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Coffee Meets Bagel: to meet 'The One'
It’s been described as “the anti-Tinder” - and with good reason too. Coffee Meets Bagel’s radical focus is on the quality of matches it offers, rather than an endless sea of faces you find yourself vacantly swiping through elsewhere. Every day, you’ll be offered just one single ‘holy grail’ match based on information you’ve already inputted on your tastes, preferences and hobbies.
Don’t like what you see? Hold your horses, wait until tomorrow. No one said true love was easy to find.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Do I Date: for rating dates
Do I Date is one of the newest dating apps on the scene, which sees users leaving reviews for the people they’ve dated, including a star rating. The app’s founders Terry Amsbury and Jamie Forsyth say it’s about adding transparency to online dating.
Received a dick pic or found out the guy has two girlfriends? Leave a review. Had a great time with a lovely girl and want to date them again? Let them know.
Download on iOS
Grindr: if you’re a man looking to meet a man
Before there was Tinder, there was Grindr. Having first launched in 2009, the app is credited with being the precursor to the current swathe of digital dating apps.
Things to note: it’s an all-male dating app for both gay and bisexual men, it uses your mobile device’s location-based services to show you the guys closest to you who are also on surfing the app and it’s most popular in London, meaning your living in the best city to try it out.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Happn: to meet the girl at your local coffee shop
Got your eye on your local barista? Get on Happn. The French app plays on natural serendipity by flagging mutual interests in real time. Maybe you’ll finally be that couple that can tell all your friends you met on the Tube.
It works as simply as this: every time you cross paths with someone in real life, their profile shows up on your timeline. It captures other users within a 250m radius of your own smartphone, giving you a cross-section of Londoners around you - and potentially your coffee house or rush hour crush.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Hater: for hating
Dream of finding the person who hates the same things as you? Then Hater is the dating app for you. Instead of faces, you match with people depending on topical talking points, whether that’s your feelings on Trump or Putin, or rage-inducing topics like slow walkers.
Intrigued? Sign up.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Her: if you’re a woman looking to meet a woman
Originally launched as ‘Grindr for girls’, Robyn Exton’s LGBTQ dating app has grown to be the biggest community for lesbian, bisexual and queer women worldwide. The app mixes dating and social networking, with a timeline to read the news, find out what’s happening in your city and make connections.
Meet your soulmate or just meet a new group of friends. The choice is yours.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Hinge: to meet someone IRL (sort of)
Hinge’s slogan “designed to be deleted” is clearly clever marketing, but users say it works. Founder Justin McLeod says it’s all about vulnerability - by putting yourself out there “honestly” in a series of Q&A prompts, you’re bound to make better connections than just swiping on who you fancy.
Plus it uses AI to learn the kind of people you like - read more about it in his interview with the Evening Standard here. (McLeod’s own love story is also worth a read)
It’s also a great app to use if you don’t want to tell your friends or future children that you met on Tinder. Instead of being matched with strangers in a nearby area, Hinge matches its users with friends of friends, so you can basically lie and pretend you met at their last birthday party.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Huggle: for mutual interests
Created by two female founders, Huggle matches people depending on the locations they’ve tagged on Instagram or Facebook. This could be the gym you regularly attend or the restaurants you find yourself in on a Saturday night.
Instead of a focus on looks, Huggle wants to join people together over their mutual interests.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Lumen: for over-50s
The next dating space to bet on? Dating for over-50s. There are around 80 million single men and women over 50 around the world and they now have their own dating app in the form of Lumen.
Lumen has been designed to provide a safe and age-appropriate dating community. Images go through a verification process to prevent fake profiles and cat-fishing. Badoo's Andrey Andreev has even invested in the platform.
Muzmatch: to meet Muslims
Muzmatch wins the award for the best dating ads on the tube, including 'Halal, is it meet you're looking for', and 'You had me at Halal'. Genius.
Best advert I’ve seen in a while! Great choice @TfL #Muzmatch pic.twitter.com/t2gKp4WX0p
— Mike Hawthorn (@MHawth1988) January 11, 2019
As you can probably guess, the basis for Muzmatch is to find fellow Muslims to date.
The user interface looks similar to Tinder and verifies you using your phone number and a selfie, not a Facebook account. There's also the option to choose to keep your photos blurred until you match with someone, though the app says profiles with visible photos recieve 300 per cent more matches.
Raya: to meet a celebrity
Ever wanted to date a celebrity? This ‘illuminati Tinder’ app is the place to go if you’re after a bedfellow with money and fame. Cara Delevingne, Ruby Rose and Elijah Wood are all reported to be members of Raya, the world’s most exclusive dating app.
Getting on there, however, is harder than finding a great date. You’ll have to be very beautiful, very successful and have 5,000-plus Instagram followers to get in. It’s basically the Soho House of dating. Good luck.
Download on iOS
Salt: to meet Christians
Like Muzmatch, Salt's USP depends on religion: helping Christians to find and date one another online.
The app launched at the end of last year by an all-Christian team who were disillusioned about trying to meet other Christians in the wild. In particular, the team behind Salt hope to make Christian dating "a little less awkward and a lot more fun."
The design of the app is gorgeous, all muted greys and subtle pinks, so you can download and get swiping.
Tastebuds: to meet a fellow hipster
What if there was a dating app that provided potential matches based on musical listening preferences? Now there is: Tastebuds acts as a social music network that pairs you up with people who regularly listen to the same bands as you.
Using the same API as Last.fm (remember that?) Tastebuds scans your local music library, adding your ‘favourite’ artists to your account. You are then matched with others users based on the artists you both like.
It’s all perfectly simple – you like the Pixies and Suede? Well, here are a bunch of other people that do too. Take your pick.
Download on iOS
The Inner Circle: if you’re looking for a date with money
This controversial dating website and app, bills itself as a network for "like-minded" individuals; a "high-end", "exclusive community" with an "impressive following of successful and attractive people.” Basically city bankers who want to find good looking dates without having to scour Mayfair's Whisky Mist and Barts in Chelsea.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
The League: for the elites
If you can’t get on Raya, then you can also try The League, dubbed Tinder for elites. It’s a selective dating app for young, successful individuals, which first launched in San Francisco before making its way to London at the end of last year.
You have to be between 24 and 36 to be a member on the app and many of the members work in careers such as finance, technology, consulting and fashion.
Download on iOS
Tinder: for the casual hook up
Arguably the most well-known dating app, Tinder was once the place for social introverts to meet their significant other. Now it’s a tool for swiftly finding an insignificant one-night stand - whether you're straight, gay, bi, transgender or gender-fluid.
In 2015, Vanity Fair declared Tinder as the ultimate place that twentysomethings go to “hit it and quit it”, claiming that the app was solely responsible for a “dating apocalypse”. While die-hard romantics might agree, others say the app has revolutionised the process of hunting down no-strings fun at relatively little expense. The tool basically works by swiping yes or no based on each user’s picture.
Not sure where to start? These are the 30 most right-swiped Brits on Tinder right now.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Of course, the beauty of online dating is its versatility - you never know who you’re going to find on each app.
But if all else fails and you can’t find the perfect match, don’t worry: there’s a whole world of people offline too.
The Intro: for busy professionals who want to swerve small-talk
Launched in London a year ago, The Intro is all about meeting IRL instead of weeks of pre-date chit-chat. When two users match, they can't chat, instead they schedule a date. Just tell the app when you’re next free and it’ll work out a mutual slot and suggest meeting spots between the two of you - like your own dating concierge.
Video dates are now available if you can’t meet in person and there’s a ‘speed date’ option for two-minute virtual dates with other online members.
Profiles are the classic Hinge or Bumble six-picture format with bios and Q&As. The added bonus? Friends, family (and even exes) can contribute to your profile.
Download on iOS and Google Play Store
Elate: for people who hating ghosting
The anti-ghosting app for people who prefer dating one person at a time. Elate was launched by Londoner Sanjay Panchal this year in response to research that found ghosting to be the number one complaint amongst dating app users: 95% of those surveyed this year say they’ve been ghosted and 75% admit to doing it to others.
Elate’s solution? It only lets you chat with three matches at once and will let you know if one moves on to chat to someone new (so you're not left wondering and waiting).
In line with this more respectful approach, it also shows potential matches’ bios over photos so you’re not distracted by a pretty face until you know they’re worth it.
Download on iOS
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