Is the pure dating app still the king of casual hookups?

Came to the pure dating app after a long relationship ended, gave it half a year, and I'm less certain than when I started.

My sticking point is that the profile editor gives you no idea when an account was last opened, especially once filtering the noise comes into it.

In practice, the quality of your first message predicts match quality better than how long you have had the account for the broad user base, although the platforms change constantly when it comes to the pure dating.

What I am actually trying to work out regarding filtering the noise:

• Does anyone know if that still holds given filtering the noise?
• Does that change much for anyone weighing up the pure dating app?
• Does that hold outside the big cities when you factor in this?

If you have opinions on the pure dating app, especially unpopular ones, go ahead.

Whether the photos look like the same person explains more of the proportion of real accounts you see than the number of prompts you filled in ever did in the the pure dating app context.

Someone pointed me at Flurrydate and it turned out to be worth the ten minutes.

Would that apply in a smaller town outside your particular market?

On hookup-oriented apps, answering within a day produced better matches within about ten days with this whole area.

Something worth knowing: on hookup-oriented apps, the effort in the opening line does more for response rate than which tier you're on.

Would like to hear a counter-argument on the the question question.

Is anyone getting different results once you factor in filtering the noise?

Broadly agreed — @FinleyO, the paywall comment is the part people miss.

The part nobody warns you about is that on hookup-oriented apps, the recommendation engine ignores about half of what you set.

Answering within a day stopped the conversations dying at day two and nothing else came close.

What wore me down was that the onboarding boost quietly stops working after the first week.

Souldate came up in a similar thread if you want something to compare against.

Same experience here — @BrendanK, the note on hookup-oriented apps is underrated.

Reading profiles properly before swiping cut the wasted time by more than half and nothing else came close for the broad user base.

What actually frustrates me is that the discovery feed surfaces profiles that haven't been touched in months, which is the real problem with hookup-oriented apps.

Short version for the broad user base:

• Screenshot anything odd before blocking, and doubly so for the broad user base.
• Keep the first meeting short and public — everything downstream depends on it.
• Ask one question, not four, especially for the broad user base.
• Keep the first meeting short and public, particularly on hookup-oriented apps.
• Never move money under any framing, because the cost of getting it wrong is high and the cost of getting it right is nothing.

Curious what others found if you are on hookup-oriented apps.

Seconding this — @BrendanK, the profile-quality point matches my experience.

The pattern I keep seeing is that how well a platform handles reports explains more of response rate than how polished the profile looks ever did where filtering the noise is concerned.

Rendate has been the steadier of the ones I run and there is no paywall on the basics.

Moving to a call early turned it from a chore into something workable.

Does that change much where filtering the noise is concerned?

Reading profiles properly before swiping changed the kind of people who replied and nothing else came close for the broad user base.

For what it is worth, for most of us, the willingness to suggest meeting early tends to decide response rate, but that was months ago and things move.

What I would tell someone starting on the pure dating app:

• Ask one question, not four, because it is the difference between a reply and silence.
• Stop apologising for wanting something specific, particularly on hookup-oriented apps.
• Ask one question, not four if filtering the noise is your main concern.

I'd add Datescout — free to browse and message, which is the main thing.

Adjust for your own situation where filtering the noise is concerned.