By now most all of us know about Tinder. You swipe right if you
like a person or swipe left to pass on them. You can now swipe up and super
like someone so that when you appear in their feed you’re outlined in blue so
they all ready know that you’re interested. Sort of makes things easier in
terms of deciding whether or not you’re interesting if you all ready know they
are. Once you connect you’re able to message one another but that can turn into
a bit of a problem. There are plenty of ghost accounts where the person never
sends a message and as soon as you unmatch them they will reappear in your feed
once more. Or there are the ones where the person is obviously lying about
their age and only looking for a hookup. That doesn’t seem to match well with
the idea of dating when it’s considered a dating app.
I’m here to talk a bit about Coffee Meets Bagel as one of the
newer dating apps that is actually focused on making matches and having people
connect. Think of it as Tinder but more, intense? No, that probably isn't the
right word. It's more about a deeper connection with a person rather than
simply connecting based on appearance alone. To start off with you set your
specifics of what you're looking for in regards to age, height, ethnicity,
religion, and distance from where you live. Then you get one possible match
every 24 hours. That's right, only one guy shows up every 24 hours. Let's break
it down as to why this is.
The app requires you to connect it to your Facebook, in order to
help prove that you're a real person and prove your education along with
employment. Of course it never posts anything there so that's nice. It’s always
nice to see that a possible connection has either a job or an education.
Anyways, like any dating app you get to add multiple pictures and the app even
has a tips for what kind of pictures you should post. You know, show pictures
of what you enjoy doing and don't use blurry photos, mirror selfies, or group
photos. You even get a weekly report telling you why people liked you and what
they like about your profile. That’s a nice bit of feedback to work with in
case someone wants to know more about what you wrote because its vague.
There are only three possible areas for you to write in to
describe yourself. The fill in the blanks are "I am..." "I
like..." and "I appreciate when my date..." and each has three
little spaces for you to fill out. There are some people who go all out and
list a whole lot more so that it looks like they've written paragraphs but
there are also those that don't write much of anything. If you don’t fil it in
all it says is N/A. For myself I just listed a few simple things about
traveling the world, running for fun, and loving music. Nothing too
overwhelming but certainly enough for someone to be able to ask questions
about. Let me tell you I love when a conversation starts off with the guy
asking where I've traveled. That tells me he at least read about me and paid
attention.
With only getting one guy every 24 hours that means that at 12pm
every day I get to check whether or not I have a potential match with someone.
You can either like or pass someone and you have plenty of time to decide and
make your choice. If you happen to connect with someone then you get a new chat
window. In the chat window there is always a little bubble saying something
about the person you matched with. For example, mine likely says: "She loves
to travel" Ask her about it! That’s because of the information that I
filled in. Then if no one says anything for a day the app sends another message
to both users about how starting the conversation helps to ensure you getting
higher quality Bagels in the future. Then after another few days if nothing is
said there is another reminder about the app prioritizing the best Bagels for
the best responders. The whole chat line is open for a week. Usually at the end
of the chat period week you are asked if you want to extend the chat and if you
both say yes or maybe then the chat line lasts for a few more days. After that
the chat line will completely close. This means you have to make sure to share
your number so you can text or you'll just lose contact completely.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of having something that is a
bit more personal with more information about a person as compared to Tinder but
I feel that it's also used to help make sure they can have plenty of possible
matches for each person who joins for quite a few weeks. I mean, if there's 100
guys on the app in my area that means I can only have one guy a day for the
next 100 days. That's going to keep me checking back on the app so I can see
who I get next. I can’t just see all the possibilities in a few days.
Now there is the Discover section of the app where you can
"give" or "take" some of the guys who appear. The general
idea of it is you seeing other people who you might be interested in or someone
who you think might be a good match for a friend. So you can "take"
someone if you pay the price of so many beans. Oh, they have a bean system in
place to act as money in the app. You get beans for passing or liking every day
so it's easy to earn them. You can also buy more beans with actual money.
Sometimes people appear in the Discover section who like you but they might not
fit the criteria that you have listed in the app. I've had a few guys show up
where it says they like me but they were shorter guys didn't seem to have much
on the ball so I passed on them. Then you can "give" someone to a
friend and I figure the purpose of that is to help get more people on the app.
That makes sense because apps are able to spread because of word of mouth, or
rather by simple text invites these days.
Now to recap on what each of the apps have to offer here’s a nice
little list.
Coffee Meets
Bagel
Pros:
- Deeper connections
- More filters for what you’re looking for (age, height, race, ethnicity, location, etc.)
- More information about the person you’re swiping
- Conversation starters provided
- Chat closes after so many days or when no messages are exchanged
- Able to discover people outside of your preset filters
- Weekly report full of tips and comments on profile
- One person every 24 hours
- Uses beans as monetary system that you can choose to pay for allowing you to “buy” people in discover mode
- Some profiles aren’t filled in all the way
- You just might run out of possible Bagels because of your filters
- One person every 24 hours
Tinder
Pros:
- Almost endless possibilities in regards to people to swipe through
- Filters distance and age in your settings
- Allows you to connect Instagram to your account to show off more pictures/interests
- Messenger works nicely without lag or difficulties
- Super likes can be sent to someone you’re interested in
- Short and sweet descriptions are optional but not required
Cons:
- Plenty of ghost accounts (no one ever talks/swipes right on everyone)
- Tinder plus costs money allowing you to send more super likes, change locations, and experience no ads
- More people looking for hookups than an actual relationship
- Fake accounts with people lying about their age
So, what do you think? Have you had any funny experience on one of the apps so far?