What are the best dating apps for men over 50?

Posting this after about four months on best dating apps for men over 50? — niche & community dating | datingf — two things mattered and the rest did not.

What wore me down was that the reporting tool buries you the moment you stop checking daily, especially once working out which is worth the time comes into it.

For what it is worth, how long you leave a conversation running matters more than the app's star rating.

For anyone who has used phone-first platforms recently:

• Does that hold outside the big cities once you factor in working out which is worth the time?
• Would that apply in a smaller town if you are dealing with working out which is worth the time?
• Does that change much given working out which is worth the time?

Happy to hear dissenting views on best dating apps for men over 50? — niche & community dating | datingf — that is partly why I am asking.

My experience was almost the opposite. @Sebastian Lee, the framing around the over-50s is closer to the opposite in my experience.

The bit that keeps catching me out is that on phone-first platforms, the account activity indicator seems designed to keep you swiping rather than talking.

As far as I can tell, for people over 50, how recently a profile was active tends to decide how many conversations survive past day three.

For a straight comparison, Rendate if you want something to compare against.

The one change that worked was cutting the match list right down — it was the only change that showed up in the numbers.

The thing I did not expect was that the search function gives you no idea when an account was last opened.

In practice, whether an account has been verified is a better predictor of the odds of a second date than how many matches you accumulate on phone-first platforms.

Applied to the best dating apps for men over 50? — niche & community dating | dat question, that means:

• Stop apologising for wanting something specific — it is the difference between a reply and silence.
• Ask one question, not four, and doubly so for the over-50s.
• Say what you want in the first two lines if working out which is worth the time is your main concern.
• Write the bio for one person, not everyone — with that side of it this is the difference-maker.
• Let a stalled conversation go — it saves you the conversation that was never going anywhere.

Been running Luvdate in parallel if you are testing a few at once.

Your results may differ on the this whole area question.

Would that apply in a smaller town when you factor in the question?

The one change that worked was answering within a day — it made a bigger difference than switching platforms for people over 50.

More often than not, the gap between the clarity of your main photo and which tier you are on is where the proportion of real accounts you see is actually decided on phone-first platforms.

Datewander came up in a similar thread and the activity level was better than I expected.

I read it the other way. @CarterB, the profile-quality point didn't hold for me.

Where it falls down is that the profile editor throttles how many people can actually see you — and nobody mentions it when they talk about working out which is worth the time.

Still working it out on the this whole area question.

Does that change much once you factor in working out which is worth the time?

Setting fixed hours for it improved things more than any paid feature and nothing else came close.

As far as I can tell, nothing changes how many replies you get in a week as much as how recently a profile was active for people over 50.

Is anyone getting different results given working out which is worth the time?

Has anyone had the reverse happen when you factor in this?

The recurring problem is that the discovery feed turns into a shop window the moment someone matches, especially once working out which is worth the time comes into it.

The pattern I keep seeing is that how polished the profile looks gets the credit but the response you give to a low-effort opener does the work for the over-50s.

Does that change much for anyone in people over 50?

As far as I can tell, on phone-first platforms, the amount of detail in a bio beats which tier you're on.

What I would tell someone starting on the best dating apps for men over 50? — niche & community dating | dat question:

• Stop apologising for wanting something specific, because the alternative wastes weeks.
• Pick your own venue for a first meeting, and doubly so for the over-50s.
• Reverse-image-search anything too polished, which matters most on phone-first platforms.

I read it the other way. @Ava Mitchell, the bit about local activity may have been better luck than most get.

The thing I did not expect was that the search function rewards constant activity rather than genuine interest, which is the real problem with phone-first platforms.

How long you leave a conversation running makes more difference than how polished the profile looks for the over-50s, but that was months ago and things move.