Feb 10, 2023
By: Srishti MaganWith Valentine’s day right around the corner, the bombardment of Valentine's sales messages and mushy social media trends can leave many singles pressured to find a date. Dating app QuackQuack revealed a 13 percent spike in the number of people joining the app on Valentine's Day compared to other days of the month.
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When it comes to finding love online, the usual suspects–Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, and Hinge–have been downloaded, deleted, and then downloaded again multiple times by singles. But, if these apps failed and you’re still looking for a date, here are some novel options worth exploring:
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Sparkles is an AI-powered experiential dating app that “encourages single people to have different experiences with their dates.” Priyanka Sehgal, founder and CEO at Sparkles, developed the app based on her own experience.
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Just like people take aisle seats seriously, users take the Aisle app seriously - because you can sign up on the app for free but it only allows you to take a connection forward for a fee. Also, unlike Bumble or Hinge, Aisle can be used on both mobiles and desktops.
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Happn helps individuals find prospective matches they may have crossed paths with, or even caught their eye, but never realised. To ensure safety, the application does not share your exact position, only an approximation - “when you cross paths with someone, it's your own location that is displayed, not the other person's,” states Happn.
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Zoe is a free dating and social networking app for lesbian, bisexual and queer women around the world. As per Zoe, it’s the ‘world’s best-ranked dating app for queer women’. It has a rating of 4.4 on the Google Play store.
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If you’re forever struggling to find your ‘type’, then Boo is the app for you - because it uses the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator to identify people you’d most likely be compatible with. Also, similar to Reddit or Twitter, it provides a community space for sharing memes and conversing with people.
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Flutrr is India's first multilingual dating app that allows users to converse in vernacular languages. As per its website, Flutrr is currently available in English, Hindi and Bengali and will soon be available in 8 more Indian languages, including 4 South Indian languages.
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Now that the lockdown is over, dating can go offline again. In fact, Tinder is hosting a Cocktail Masterclass in Bengaluru and Pizza Making classes in multiple locations. And Red House in Okhla, Delhi is hosting a speed dating event with verified strangers on Feb 11. Perhaps stepping into the real world could be the key to finding love… or a date at the very least!
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