Image used for representational purpose only

THANE: A 36-year-old married man from Bhayandar in Thane district of Maharashtra was forced to pay the ransom of over Rs 6 lakh after he was held captive by a woman, who had befriended him through a 'dating' app, and her associates, police said on Monday.
An FIR was registered at the Shree Nagar police station on charges of extortion, robbery and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after the victim approached the police this morning, but no arrest is made so.
An officer said the victim, who manufactures and sells furniture, had come in contact with a woman last July through a 'dating service' app- 'Quack Quack'.
The woman invited him to Thane city and when he arrived at the scheduled location in the Shree Nagar area, she took him to her house, the officer said quoting the FIR.
"The man was held captive in her house by the woman and other accused-one of them a woman- who thrashed him and demanded Rs 10 lakh for releasing him. They threatened the victim to defame him if he fails to pay up. They snatched credit cards of the victim and his wife and withdrew Rs 6,32,100 before allowing him to go," the officer said, adding that further investigation is underway.

Every morning I wake up to the same routine. I log into the Tinder account of a 45-year-old man from Texas—a client. I flirt with every woman in his queue for 10 minutes, sending their photos and locations to a central database of potential “Opportunities.” For every phone number I get, I make $1.75.

I’m what’s called a “Closer” for the online-dating service ViDA (Virtual Dating Assistants). Men and women (though mostly men) from all over the world pay this company to outsource the labor and tedium of online dating. The matches I speak to on behalf of the Texan man and other clients have no idea they’re chatting with a professional.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that these ghostwriting services exist. Tinder alone produces more than 12 million matches a day, and if you’re a heterosexual American, you now have a one in three chance of meeting your future husband or wife online. But as e-romance hits an all-time high, our daily dose of rejection, harassment, and heartbreak creeps upward, too. Once you mix in the vague rules of netiquette and a healthy fear of catfishing scams, it’s easy to see why someone might want to outsource their online-dating profile to a pro, if only to keep themselves sane.

But where does the digital social assistant end and the con artist begin?

The online seduction manual 

When I tell people that I work as an online-dating assistant, their initial reaction is of morbid curiosity. “How did you even find out about that?” they ask, voices lowering, leaning in.

In November 2017, I ran across an ad seeking “people with good Tinder skills” for a job as a “Virtual Dating Assistant.” At first I thought it was a joke, but I completed their online form out of pure fascination. I received a callback three days later.

Could I work in an “moral gray area?” Would I be comfortable ranking clients’ photographs? Was I dating anyone currently?

Apparently, professional writers make for good online-dating assistants; knowing how to seduce strangers with the written word is the company’s mandate, after all. But the intake interviewer seemed just as interested in my ethical flexibility as he was in the journalistic details of my résumé. Could I work in an “moral gray area?” Would I be comfortable ranking clients’ photographs? Was I dating anyone currently?

I learned that there are two main types of writers at the company: “Profile Writers,” who create seductive and click-worthy profiles based on facts our clients have supplied about themselves, and “Closers,” who log in to clients’ dating accounts at least twice a day to respond to messages from matches.

Despite hiring writers to do this work, virtually none of what the company does requires creativity of any kind. Profile Writers follow strict guidelines, often recycling the same half-dozen clichés over and over again. If a client has a dog (jackpot!), all the Profile Writer needs to do is search for the word “dog” in their manual and choose from a list of dog-related one-liners, like this one:

“Hey. As an animal lover, I want to find out your opinion… dressing up your dog: yes or no?”

The process for Closers is a bit more complicated. The initial training period lasts several weeks before we’re given access to clients’ accounts, during which we must read several training manuals and submit draft responses to fake matches. At first, my trainer encouraged me to get creative with my replies, but by the third week, I was still getting back extensive rewrites. My most frequent mistake was asking career-oriented questions, which were deemed too difficult for some women to answer. “She seems more simple,” my trainer would write in response. “Let’s try a different approach.” My meaningful questions would disappear from our shared GoogleDoc, replaced by simpler, condescending small talk.

My Closer manuals were written by the company’s founder, Scott Valdez, a self-taught dating expert with a background in sales. The manuals have titles like Women On Demand and The Automatic Date Transition, and are loaded with his personal insights into the primal female brain. We are to treat them as dating-assistant gospel.

“There’s no question about it,” reads one chapter, “women want to date the alpha male. They are naturally drawn to the ‘leader of the pack.’” Valdez elaborates later in the manual: “The alpha male is the selector, he chooses… he is not chosen.” But how do you present yourself as an Alpha? “Never compliment her without a qualification,” he writes. “Let her know what you want in a woman and make her explain why she fits those criteria.”

“I’m not a psychologist or self-proclaimed expert in the multiple facets of human psychology,” Valdez told Quartz in a phone call. “I consider myself to be a marketer, a matchmaker, and a dating expert.” He lists the books he’s read that inform his methods: Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational, David J. Lieberman’s Get Anyone To Do Anything, (“which kind of scared my mom”), and the classic Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.

“Online dating takes effort, and effort equals time.”

“Online dating takes effort, and effort equals time,” he continued. “With [dating apps’] explosion in popularity, it means that you have a huge dating pool at your fingertips, but you’re also in direct competition with everyone else in your area. So if you want to have a chance at meeting your most intriguing matches, you need to have the best possible profile, photos, and messages.”

In my guise as a middle-aged American male, it’s my job to pursue women on our clients’ behalf. These people are often in their early 20s; young women with less dating savvy are easy targets for the company’s methods. “Rule 1: Don’t make her think too hard,” the manual says. “When writing sales copy…the goal is to reduce her ‘cognitive load’ so she’s more likely to reach the end and still have energy to write out a reply.”

What does a “low cognitive load” pick-up line look like? My personal favorite:

A beautiful seaplane. A suitcase full of cash. And a dashing co-pilot. Whereto?

These pick-up lines are mostly sent by a third type of employee, “Matchmakers,” who send out opening messages en masse across every dating platform imaginable: Tinder, Bumble, match.com, POF, Luxy, and Seeking Arrangement, to name just a few. As part of the company’s all-inclusive service, Matchmakers will scour these platforms for potential matches and then send copy-and pasted opening messages to those who fulfill their clients’ preferences, such as “must love cats” or “should know how to cook.”

But combing through each woman’s profile would require too much time, so Matchmakers are instead taught to generalize a client’s preferences as much as possible and then select an opening line that could work for hundreds of women. For example, does Client X like to travel? That’s easy: Client X’s Matchmaker can search the company manual for the word “travel” and select from a handful of vague travel-related greetings. From there, after the client has approved the message, a one-liner blitz will rain down on dozens of dating sites, targeting hundreds of women with the word “travel” in their profiles.

“We have a lot of ice-breaker messages that are billed around specific interests, like yoga or skiing or having a very short profile,” Valdez told Quartz. ”If there’s a message that the client doesn’t like, we take it out of rotation.” After the Matchmakers have made contact, the Closers then step in to keep up the flirty banter and, hopefully, get their client a date. Clients are sent weekly emails to alert them of numbers we’ve scored or, for Platinum clients, when and where to go for a date we’ve arranged.

This messaging “blast” technique may appear lucrative compared to the average neighborhood yenta, but it has occurred to me that good matchmaking may not be in the company’s financial interest. When a client pairs up, they leave the service. And with ViDA charging each client anywhere from $495 to $1,695 a month for its services, there is a significant financial incentive to keep them coming back.

So, tell me about yourself

Originally a sales guy with no time for “real dates,” Valdez grew ViDA’s brand out of his own experiences in the dating world. Before Tinder normalized “DTF” (“Down To Fuck”) as an opening salute, Valdez would send copy-and-pasted pick-up lines to dozens of women a day and track their effectiveness on spreadsheets. “Online dating is a numbers game,” he would write in the ViDA training manual years later.

His idea for a digital-dating-assistant service started in 2009, when he was frustrated with the amount of time it took to search for matches online. “I was working 60 to 70 hours a week and simply didn’t have time to keep up with online dating,” he said. “Before my life had gotten so crazy, I’d managed to develop some material that worked really well on the dating sites I was using. But I was at the point where I was only able to return messages sporadically, which obviously didn’t go too well with the matches I was interested in.”

“I thought, ‘Why couldn’t I just take what I had developed, and train someone else to sound like me, and outsource my online dating to him?’”

“I found myself wishing there were two of me,” he continued. “I thought, ‘Why couldn’t I just take what I had developed, and train someone else to sound like me, and outsource my online dating to him?’” After finding someone on Craigslist who “did a really great job,” Valdez started thinking about how many people were in the same position: time-poor professionals who might benefit from some of the lessons he’d learnt. “If it weren’t for my relentless dedication to cracking the code to meeting and attracting the right person, I probably wouldn’t have met the girl I’m with now.”

Today the company employs 80 people and boasts 2,500 “satisfied customers.” But the same cannot be said for all of its employees.

I asked my coworkers how they handle the moral flexibility that the work demands. One male Closer told me that it felt rewarding to “help men too old to understand the internet,” and that “some people are too busy for all that.” Another writer told me that “finding love is a mysterious process, so we use data.”

The service’s data-driven approach to professional flirting became clear to me during my training. “We’ve discovered that a surprisingly large portion of the online dating process can be systematized into what is essentially clerical work,” read one line in my training manual. “Really, when you think about it, you’re writing sales copy.”

To this end, every message I send is logged into an automated system that analyzes response rates. Closers regularly discuss what works and what doesn’t, swapping tips in extensive email chains. There are required monthly team meetings, in which Closers help workshop opening messages and pitch new ideas. While the list of company-approved opening lines is constantly evolving, the formula is almost always the same: a vague reference to something on the match’s profile, followed by an extremely easy question, like “I see you’re into yoga…. so answer this question once and for all: which is better, hot or not?”

Paradoxically, ViDA’s manual says that honesty is key to seduction. One chapter titled Don’t Lie includes lines like, “There are few things women hate more than insincerity” and “If you’ve told your date you’re a six-foot-tall astronaut when actually you’re 5 ft 9 and sell insurance, she’s going to find out.”

“It’s about trust and making sure we represent them in a way that’s comfortable for them and feels authentic, because at the end of the day they’re going to be the one going on the date,” he added over the phone. “It’s important that everything that we do feels right and feels true to who they are.”

But I’m not an astronaut or an insurance salesman. I’m a woman sitting in my living room in Montréal, running proxies on my smartphone and laptop. I’m logged into my client’s Tinder and match.com accounts, appearing on these platforms (with the help of numerous fake GPS services) to be the man I’m pretending to be. I sit on my couch and wait for messages to arrive in their inbox.

“Oh, you like Pink Floyd?” I write to one match. “Cool. I saw them in concert in ‘77.” This technically isn’t a fib: My client did see Pink Floyd in 1977—though I wasn’t born until 1992.

I was three weeks into my contract when I encountered a client whose age was listed as 25. Written beside his photos was a casual disclaimer: “…he’s actually 33 but wants to present like 25 to attract younger ladies.” Shaving two or three years off of a client’s age was common practice, but eight years felt predatory. I sent an email inquiring about the company’s policies, and never heard back.

“If a client requests it, we may add an inch or two onto the displayed height or shave a year or two off the listed age, but we don’t like to do anything that’s really big,” Valdez explained to Quartz. “The goal is for the client to meet their matches face to face and hopefully spark a long-term relationship. So big lies about important facts undermine that goal. We make sure our clients understand that.”

If a woman doesn’t respond to our cheesy pick-up lines or cough up her number by the third message, I’m instructed to move on, as the match is no longer cost-effective.

Despite my attempts at embracing the “Alpha Male” attitude, the training staff have repeatedly told me that my writing is “too female,” a characteristic that has never been fully explained. To mitigate this “error,” I’ve been told I need to use shorter sentences, ask fewer questions, use fewer smileys, wait longer to reply, and set up dates before even asking if the woman is interested. If a woman doesn’t respond to our cheesy pick-up lines or cough up her number by the third message, I’m instructed to move on, as the match is no longer cost-effective.

Closers aren’t paid for the time they spend waiting for new messages, so I reread my clients’ intake questionnaires in order to bill my base salary of $12 an hour. Every client must answer 50 or so questions about themselves when they first sign up and go through a 90-minute interview, supplying Profile Writers and Closers with nuggets of mundane information. Most of it is useless when it comes to fuel for flirtatious banter—like “I took piano lessons until I was 5 years old,” or “I had fun at my sister’s wedding”—but these lifeless anecdotes are all we have to draw from.

Several times a day, female staffers receive Photo Ranking Requests, in which we rank new clients’ photos in order of attractiveness. This helps Matchmakers select which photos to use when building or updating a client’s dating profile. “We don’t like to declare that this client’s a 9, this client’s a 6, or compare our clients in any way,” Valdez said. “We do, however, rank the attractiveness of a single client’s photos against one another. We just employ a data-driven ranking process for choosing the most attractive pictures…We do this internally to determine a client’s optimal photo lineup.” He mentioned that OkCupid used to run a similar service, and Tinder can also optimize your photographs so that the most popular are shown first.

One Profile Writer I spoke with (I’ll call him Doug) was candid about his dilemmas over the company’s practices. After working as a Closer for two years, Doug had asked to switch to Profile Writing. He’d taken to referring to Closer work as “the dark side.”

Doug told me that a lot of clients never call the women “who have been really engaged emotionally and are responding to our messages.” Once Closers receive their commission for getting a number ($1.75 each), they move on. But if a woman never hears from the client—the man she believes she’s been corresponding with the whole time—she might send more messages through the app, upset that she hasn’t heard from him. But the Closer is no longer allowed to reply, so he ghosts her. There’s no more money to be made.

“I am creating these bitter women out there,” he said. “I ask myself if I’m part of the problem.”

Doug learned to unmatch from women once he’d received his commission. It was easier for him that way.

Fool’s gold

What kind of person would pay strangers to score them dates online, and then not even bother to call? Clients who can afford to ignore phone numbers because they receive so many a week are internally referred to as “Cash Cows.” They go on several dates a week for months or sometimes years on end, traveling frequently to new areas and an ever-expanding pool of women. These clients tend to be younger men in high-powered finance jobs.

Valdez said that the typical client profile tends to be somebody between the ages of about 28 and 52, with most being in their 30s. (He also claims that one third of their clients are female.) From there, it divides into two camps: those who “have more money than time,” and those who are just plain frustrated. “Entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers,” he lists. “Programmers, too—especially programmers in the Bay Area. We get a lot of them.”

“[ViDA allows] them to delegate this particular aspect of their lives to an expert, just as many have financial planners, landscapers, personal trainers, and mechanics on speed dial.”

These types of professionals are money rich but time poor, he explains. Valdez referenced a recent survey that shows online love seekers are spending 10 hours a week on dating sites and apps. “Our clients have successful careers,” he said. “They work, they travel often, and they just don’t have that time. So the need a company like ViDA fills is allowing them to delegate this particular aspect of their lives to an expert, just as many have financial planners, landscapers, personal trainers, and mechanics on speed dial.”

Indeed, there are plenty of older men seeking age-appropriate, long-term relationships online. These are the types of clients Doug and Valdez always refer to when justifying the service, as our work helps them navigate unfamiliar territory. After all, internet culture does not come naturally to some, and many of our clients are widowed or divorced retirees.

I asked one of my trainers if the company takes on any married clients. Men looking to quietly set up extramarital affairs would benefit from the company’s all-hands approach; they wouldn’t even need to install the dating apps or visit the websites we use. Matchmakers will select their best photos, Profile Writers will make them sound appealing, and Closers will do all the flirting for them. Our clients need only check whatever email they’ve provided for date locations and phone numbers.

My trainer was quick to reassure me that they refuse those prospective clients. “Even if the guy’s lying about it, Scott has a whole system for how we deal with that situation.”

When asked about this policy directly, Valdez pointed out that their website clearly states that they do not take on married clients or those looking to cheat; he also said that the extensive on-boarding process tends to weed out any immoral actors. “I couldn’t sleep well at night knowing we are helping people wreck their families. We’ve never knowingly helped cheaters,” he says. “There are a lot of other ways I’d prefer to make money than helping people mess up their family.”

Is it even legal?

The company’s practices may be unethical—but they’re not illegal. Once the company obtains the client’s permission to impersonate them online, there are no laws against what Closers do.

Instead, it’s left to individual platforms to crack down on fake accounts. OKCupid, for instance, makes it clear in their terms of service that third parties are not allowed to open accounts, and it’s not uncommon for clients’ profiles to get flagged and deleted. But from a legal perspective, unless a Closer harasses or threatens a match, exposes a client’s confidential information, or asks for money, everything they do is legal according to US, Canadian, and UK law.

But legality aside, these cut-and-paste flirtations perpetuate negative gender stereotypes, and they reinforce an oversimplified (and destructive) view of romantic expectations.

Men and women on online-dating platforms therefore learn to emulate personalities that yield quantifiable results.

As dating platforms become flooded with calculated, flirtatious spam, men and women on these sites learn to emulate personalities that yield quantifiable results. This means playing down unique traits and unorthodox views to the point where a total stranger—like me—could literally do it in their place. By trying to appeal to dozens, if not hundreds, of strangers at the same time, we forfeit our ability to take risks and experiment with social norms; only placing safe bets robs us of new and genuine experiences.

But the steepest price of this online anonymity appears to be human decency, which—as I’m often reminded at ViDA—doesn’t lead to dates.

For example, one match told me that she’d just put down her family dog. Still in training, I wasn’t sure what to do. I wrote out an apology for her loss and sent it to my instructor for approval. He crossed out my response and wrote underneath: “Alpha Males don’t apologize.” What we sent back instead was an upbeat story about our client’s two dogs, which was a shamefully inconsiderate reply in my view. I expected to never hear back from her, but three exchanges later, she was sending me her phone number.

It was my first commission: $1.75.

Had she blamed my client’s callous response on internet miscommunication? Or was she learning—just as I was—that reaching out for a unique connection online would lead only to awkwardness and rejection? Every time she has an interaction in which her feelings are ignored—whether it’s online or in-person—I worry that she’ll learn not to talk about her emotional needs, or any needs of any kind.

As the disillusioned masses learn to offer less and expect nothing, companies like these can take advantage of this extraordinarily low barrier to entry. That cringe-worthy “dashing co-pilot” opening line might sound impossibly lame—but it works. (And at least it’s not the bare minimum “DTF?” or an unsolicited dick pic.) As a result, businesses such as these are an economic inevitability.

*   *   *

I was given my first female client after two months with the company. Women seeking out our services require a very different approach. When talking to my new client’s matches, I was told to make her voice sound “feminine (soft, warm, delicious, flowing, focusing on how she feels about things).” I had to “focus less on her career and more on her outside life…write longer sentences, more emoticons, and be more playful.”

In Doug’s view, it’s our job to act as gatekeepers for these female clients—to make sure no subpar matches make it through. “Women are so put into a box, and they aren’t going to represent what they really want,” he said. According to him, a Closer should ask the tough questions that female clients aren’t comfortable asking themselves: Does the match want children? Are they looking for something serious? Are they dating anyone else right now?

I took his advice to heart and played hardball with my female client’s matches. None of the men fit her description of what she wanted, so by the end of the first week, I had not pursued any phone numbers. I was reprimanded for not producing results, and for wasting both the company and the client’s time.

“Our clients are interested in finding their ideal match, and if the writers aren’t getting them closer to that goal, then we’re not fulfilling our commitment to our customer,” Valdez said. “So we might realize that a writer’s writing style isn’t a fit for a client or the match that client wants to attract, so we simply shift them to a client that he or she is better equipped to help.”

Another Closer was given my account. Overnight, they scored seven numbers from the matches I’d already vetoed—an additional $12.25 in their pocket.

I decided to make my exit soon after.

My initial curiosity about these dating assistants had morphed steadily into deep disgust: with the company, with Valdez and his manual, and—above all—myself. The sight of my first paycheck sent me crawling back to bed in a guilt-ridden panic.

I grew suspicious of my own dating accounts—not just of the men I matched with, but of my own ability to present a likable version of myself online. Every new conversation felt like a minefield, filling me with equal parts boredom and dread. To my dismay, I started to want my own virtual dating assistant.

This all begs the question: Have you unknowingly flirted with a professional Closer? Me, even?

As we grow accustomed to foisting more and more complicated emotional tasks onto digital butlers, we lose our ability to tolerate inelegance or find value in social failure. Moments of awkwardness and heartbreak are an inevitable part of the dating experience, and they are essential in our evolution into mature adults. By outsourcing our courtship to robots (and robot-like humans) we might save ourselves some pain in the short term, but it degrades us, simplifies us, and fails to provide for our ultimate goal of finding someone accepting of our flaws. In this age of automation, romance isn’t just one click away—it’s guaranteed.

But if you’re willing to scrape the bottom of the barrel, what isn’t?

Follow Chloe on Twitter. Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

Note: This piece was updated with a more recent opening line currently in rotation that is sent by Matchmakers.

This answer varies with other sites, so i won't speak to those. But as far as my experience with OKCUPID (fifteen years). They answer is yes they do. Not EVERYONE is hunting for a spouse. The current options on OKC are: Hookups, New Friends, Short Term, Long Term. You also can selected if you prefer monogamy or ethical non-monogamy.

(There are a LOT of men and women that understand that monogamy is a failed paradigm to expect everyone to adhere to, its not one size fits all. If it was, there would be very few cheaters.)

I have found what people select (casual, short term, long term) doesnt really matter. Relationships will naturally seek their logical state. If you meet a girl looking for a hookup and you both have OMFG chemistry, why would you never call her again?

That actually happened to me. I met a younger woman stating she ONLY was interested in a summer fling because she would be returning to college in September. It started as casual sex in July, but when when September came we wanted to continue seeing each other. And in the Spring we both realized we had fallen in love almost instantly, we were holding back because we were trying to enforce the HOOKUP paradigm.

Most women (and i assume men?) that think they want monogamy will state that in their profile and will ask you your intentions when you start chatting. If you say anything other than "i am monogamous and am only interested in serious relationships" they will tell you goodbye.

This is coercion. You have to agree to a committed monogamous relationship with a total stranger... BEFORE YOU EVEN MEET. Take a moment and forget how you have been programmed by society and read the last sentence again and ask yourself if that seems reasonable. But if everyone is demanding it, then everyone thinks its normal and reasonable. I was 40 before i discovered that there are "normal" people that understand humans are not inherently monogamous, society and religion force it upon us and shame us if we aren't in compliance.

What happens is that lying, cheating, and betrayal have become normalized, whereas honesty and authenticity are punished.

But to answer your question, on OKCUPID there are decent, attractive, fun, intelligent quality people seeking casual and long term relationships. Be honest in your profile and say that you are honest and value honesty in others, even if the truth isnt convenient. Don't say long term if you really want casual, there are other people also looking for casual.

We’re all about love at Hitched – whether that’s helping you tie the knot with your soulmate or helping you find them.

Half of all singletons now use online dating sites and apps to help them find love (or lust, *cough cough* Tinder), so it’s no longer embarrassing or cringe-worthy to admit to it. Actually, we found nearly 1 in 10 couples who ended up married met on Tinder!

Seriously, online dating is as normal as ordering your groceries on the web. With more than 1,400 dating sites and apps floating around the internet, it has never been easier to find one that suits your wants and needs. Whether you want someone bi, Christian, a farmer, a rock music fan, degree-educated or something completely different, there’s an app for that.

We’ve rounded up 21 of the best online dating sites and apps for you to choose from, plus some tips for staying safe and having your best first online date ever. Your happily ever after begins here.

NB: We have included third party products to help you navigate and enjoy life’s biggest moments. Purchases made through links on this page may earn us a commission.

READ MORE:The 16 Best Sex Toy Shops Online

The Best Online Dating Sites and Apps

1. Tinder

Image: Getty

Best for: Casual Dating

Costs: Free

Next up is the king of the dating apps. The OG, if you like. It might have a bit of a bad rep for casual sex and no-strings-attached flings, but with two billion views per day, who’s to say you can’t find the love of your life by swiping right?

Tinder is photo heavy and requires users to swipe to arrange dates. You can scroll through users’ photos, “super like” people who really take your fancy and start conversations with those who have liked your profile in return. What’s more, it picks up your location so you can track down potential matches wherever you are in the world.

Tinder’s main stumbling block is that it doesn’t allow you to include quite as much information about yourself as other dating apps do. That makes it harder to judge whether someone would be a good match for you… you’re going off appearances, basically. You can include your name, job, company, education, location and links to your Spotify and Instagram accounts. Since the app is responsible for one million dates per week, it must be doing something right.

Join Now

READ MORE:Lovehoney Reveal Their 20 Most Popular Sex Toys for Couples

2. eHarmony

Best for: Marriage Seekers

Costs: £12.95 Per Month

If you’re sick and tired of dates with people you just don’t have anything in common with, it might be time for some serious personality matching. That’s where eHarmony comes in. They’ve been around for over a decade and have a patented eHarmony Compatibility Matching System which took 35 years to create. It’s a very in-depth relationship questionnaire which gives the team the ability to match users with people they’re actually compatible with. Yep – they take this love stuff pretty seriously.

There are over 60 million members on the site from around the world. Five million of these live in Britain, so there are plenty of people to choose from. The team state that someone finds love every 14 minutes on average using eHarmony. Isn’t it worth a shot?

When you sign up, you’ll fill out their trusty questionnaire which pairs singletons according to 18 dimensions of compatibility (it might sound complicated but it’s for your own good – trust us). After that, all you need to do is wait for potential suitors to drop straight to your inbox!

You can scroll through them at leisure, set up dates, and even make the most of their guided communication tool if you’re struggling to know what to say.

Join Now

READ MORE:25 Unique Date Ideas That You Definitely Won’t Have Thought Of

3. LoveStruck

Best for: Very Busy People

Costs: Upwards of £16 Per Month

Are you a busy young professional with a high-flying job and very little spare time? Join LoveStruck, the dating app which is perfect for looking for love in the city.

It allows you to target potential partners according to their location – which can be as specific as a tube station – and it covers many of the world’s major cities. This is ideal if you’re working abroad for a while.

LoveStruck pride themselves on offering a dating experience which is meaningful. You can meet genuine singles who are looking to date with the intention of something serious. You can also add fun date ideas to your profile and match with people according to their date ideas, which we love. It’s time to get your thinking caps on…

If that wasn’t enough, the site hosts regular events which are a fun and relaxed way to meet others. Take that BFF who won’t stop banging on about her wedding planning, we dare you.

Join Now

4. Plenty of Fish

Best For: Fussy Daters

Costs: Free with Additional Paid-For Features

Plenty of Fish has more than 150 million registered users worldwide and claims to be responsible for creating more relationships and conversations than any other free dating app.

We have to admit – it isn’t the prettiest of websites. It looks more like it’s trying to sell you some sort of computer software more than it is true love. That said, they have a pretty hefty selection of success stories which will persuade you they know exactly what they’re doing.

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to take a chemistry test which allows them to match you with personalities that lead to long lasting, stable relationships. You can even discover your relationship needs and allow the team to tell you what you need in a relationship and how to make your next relationship a success. We can hear wedding bells already.

Join Now

READ MORE:33 of the Most Beautiful Wedding Guest Hairstyles

5. Match.com

Image: Getty

Best for: Nervous Newbies

Costs: £12.99 Per Month

Match is one of the most widely used dating sites in the world. It works in the traditional way: you create a profile, you check out your matches, you start chatting and you arrange a date. It’s a pretty fail-safe way of doing things, and is great for those who are newly single and wanting to put themselves back out there.

Since match.com is so well known, it attracts a wide demographic, upping your chances of finding someone you’ll click with. You can filter matches with their advanced matching feature, and even put yourself into “zen mode”. This means that you’re only contacted by those who meet your criteria.

In addition, Match put on a variety of events for single people near you, giving you that added nudge in the right direction.

It’s free to become a member of match.com, but you can only send and receive messages if you pay their £12.99 per month subscription fee. A small price to pay for finding the love of your life, right?

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6. Muddy Matches

Best For: Country Bumpkins

Costs: £94 for 12 Months

See, we told you there was something for everyone. Muddy Matches is a dating website dedicated to matching lovers of the countryside – from farmers to city dwellers who have a bit of a thing for men in tweed jackets. Finding someone who shares your interests and a similar lifestyle is important for long-lasting happiness, so we’re all ears when it comes to this site.

You can check your account from any field you might be wandering at the time (there’s a fab, easy-to-use app), and you can take their quiz to find out just how “muddy” you really are (a kind of weird, albeit fun, touch).

Membership is free but you can only send messages to your potential suitors if you pay the £94 annual subscription free.

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7. Hinge

Best For: Millennials

Costs: Free with Additional Paid-For Features

Hinge is the new kid on the block when it comes to dating apps and 20-something daters are evangelical about it. The brand’s catch phrase is “Meet people who want to get off dating apps too” – a sentiment we really like.

In our opinion, it has one up on Tinder, because it allows you to put way more information about yourself in your profile. It’s also more fun, because instead of simply uploading photos and a one-line bio, you have to answer questions like “Who was your childhood crush?” Your matches can then like the answers to your questions, allowing you to spark up a conversation. You can link up your Instagram and display lots of fun facts about yourself in one smooth, scroll-able profile page. You only get to send 10 likes per day, meaning the matches created are meaningful.

Another fab feature is their “Date Ideas” page. Every month, Hinge employees go on dates, rate their experiences and share their date ideas. There’s a whole host of ideas uploaded regularly, from zoo visits to afternoons spent in cat cafes.

Hinge is free to download. This gives you unlimited access to profiles, swiping and sending messages. Result. If you want, you can upgrade your membership to a “preferred” one, which allows you to better filter results and make things more specific.

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READ MORE:18 Rules All Wedding Guests Should Follow

8. OkCupid

Best For: Those with a Specific Checklist

Cost: Free with Additional Paid-For Features

When you first sign up to OkCupid, you have to choose what type of relationship you’re looking for – whether that be a hook-up, marriage, or a short-term relationship. You can also choose from 22 different genders (in 2014, the app were the first to introduce 22 genders and 13 sexual orientation options), including non-binaries and agenders. For that, we applaud them.

After this, you’re asked a series of 15 questions which cover everything from politics to religion. They’re all optional, though, and whether you give your own answers or not, you get the chance to say how your ideal partner would respond to them.

It’s all of this ground work which ensures the matches OkCupid sends to you are worthwhile. You can inject a bit of personality into your profile too, by answering questions like “do you make your bed every day?”. Instead of being spammed with messages, you can only message those with whom you have matched.

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9. Bumble

Best For: Putting Women in the Driving Seat

Costs: Free

Bumble made itself famous by addressing the gender imbalance in dating apps. Yep, listen up ladies – this one forces you to start all the conversations you have. And time is of the essence, because you only have 24 hours to initiate a conversation before your match is gone forever. No pressure, then.

Granted, your profile won’t be as detailed as it might be on other apps, but there is a video call ability which allows you to get to know your match before you meet.

Bumble is free to use, but you can upgrade to Bumble Boost, where you can see users who have already “liked” you. This costs £11.16 per month for 6 months or £2.49 for the day.

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READ MORE:The Best Date-Proof Flawless Foundations

10. HER

Best For: Queer, Bisexual & Lesbian Women

Costs: Free

Hoorah! A dating app which is exclusively for queer, bisexual and lesbian women has finally landed on the dating scene. With four million users worldwide, HER is dead easy to use and really seems to be making waves in the world of love.

Not only are there moderators working 24/7 to ensure the platform is safe to use, but it allows you to upload four photographs and as much information about yourself as you please. You’ll be able to see when other women have liked your profile, and it tells you their sexual orientation and how far away from you they are.

In addition to their super sleek app, HER also put on events in your area so you can meet other like-minded people.

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11. Happn

Best For: Young Professionals

Costs: Free

Happn is the app of the moment for busy people – particularly busy people who are too awkward to start a conversation. As much as we’d like to think we’d chat away to a stranger after catching eyes on the train, we’re all probably too awkward and British to do so.

Luckily, Happn works by tracking your approximate location (not your exact one, don’t worry), and displaying users you’ve crossed paths with at the top of the page. If you like what you see, you can send a heart. If they send a heart back then you can start a conversation.

Remember that gorgeous guy you bumped into on the way out of the station this morning? He just might be at the top of your home page.

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12. Tastebuds

Best For: Music Lovers

Costs: £8 Per Month

If you’re adamant that your future husband or wife has got to have the same taste in music as you, Tastebuds is the site you should head towards. Similar music taste can be a great indicator of compatibility, after all.

This fab dating website gets you to pick three artists or bands that you like and the gender you’re looking to date. That’s it. You can chat to new people who like the same music as you, find concert buddies and discover new music liked by other users based on your tastes.

One thing’s for sure, you’ll never be stuck for an icebreaker if this is the dating website you choose to use – a shared taste in music is the best conversation starter of them all!

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13. MySingleFriend.com

Best for: Shy People

Costs: £13 Per Month

MySingleFriend.com is the dating website which banishes all the *cringe* around having to blow your own trumpet when you make a dating profile. It works on the premise that most people actually don’t want to do that, and the best people to big them up are their friends.

Each member on this dating website is put forward and described – or embarrassed – by a friend, and the result is a chatty and friendly space where people can talk, meet and fall in love. Here’s hoping.

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14. Shaadi.com

Best For: Single Indians Looking for Love

Costs: Free

Shaadi.com positions itself as the “No. 1 Indian matrimonial service in the United Kingdom” which has enabled upwards of six million people to find love on the site.

It’s exclusively for people looking for marriage – illustrated by the fact that you have to set your preference to “bride” or “groom” when you sign up.

You can filter results based on age, height, religion, mother tongue, location, marital status and whether you have children. You can even change your membership level to unlock further benefits. With a personalised membership, you’ll get a relationship advisor who sets up dates on your behalf! Things could not be easier.

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READ MORE:The UK’s Best Asian Wedding Venues

15. Christian Connection

Best For: Christians Looking for Something Long-Term

Costs: Free with Some Paid-For Features

Christian Connection is one of the best religious dating sites and apps out there. It matches (yep, you guessed it) Christians with other Christians looking for long-term love. They recognise that outside of church and work, it’s often difficult to meet single, like-minded people.

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to create a detailed profile outlining your job, political views, religious standpoints, dream holiday destinations and more. Don’t be put off by the tonne of questions – they’ll help you in the long run!

From there, things couldn’t be simpler. If you see someone you like, simply “wave” at them and get chatting. They also have loads of help and advice covering everything from dating, relationships and faith by top Christian writers on their blog, plus regular dating events and free member-run meet-ups! What a better way to meet people like you?

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READ MORE:The Ultimate Guide to a Religious Wedding Ceremony

16. Scruff

Best For: Slightly Older Gay, Bi and Trans Men

Costs: Free

Scruff was originally created exclusively for men who like men with beards, but recent years have seen their database expand to men on all ends of the facial hair spectrum.

It works a little like Tinder and has you swiping left and right on potential partners – right for those you like. You can also click the “woof” button to show someone them you find them attractive.

Scruff has an older intake than Grindr, but it’s playful, easy to use and perfect for gay, bi and trans men.

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17. Elite Singles

Best For: Well-Educated Singles

Costs: Free with Paid-For Features

If you’re apprehensive about using a dating site which requires you to judge solely on appearance, you may prefer EliteSingles. It matches partners using a comprehensive personality test and only sends between three and seven matches per day – all of which are manually verified.

85% of users to the site have a degree and are between 30 and 55 years old, so this particular dating website is perfect for educated singles in their 40s. If this sounds like you – what are you waiting for?

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18. Dating Direct

Best For: Bagging an Easy Date

Costs: £12.99 Per Month for a 6 Month Membership

Say hello to DatingDirect.com, the site which is perfect for beginners because it’s so easy to use. There are no frills with this one.

When you sign up, you can start looking at potential matches for free. Then, when you find someone you might be interested in, you have to pay the subscription fee to be able to strike up a conversation.

There’s an instant messaging service, and for daters who get easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of people out there (around 20 million on Dating Direct, to be exact), you’ll get a daily email with six potential matches. It saves you sifting through masses of potentials but still gives you enough variation to find a compatible date. Bingo.

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19. Lumen

Best For: Mature Dating

Costs: Free with Paid-For Features

Lumen often gets described as Tinder for the over 50s, despite an absence of the swiping feature which Tinder became famous for. It’s an app with mature dating at its heart, where you can chat to potential suitors and arrange to meet.

We love their “icebreaker” feature – this is the term they have coined for the first message you send to someone. Your “icebreaker” message has a strict requirement of at least 50 characters (nope, sadly you can’t just put ‘hi’) which is a great way to get a proper conversation going. Your messages will disappear from your inbox after 72 hours if you fail to reply, and your matches are based primarily on location.

Lumen has strict security procedures, meaning it’s a totally safe place to meet a potential partner. All profiles get checked and verified, and live accounts can be suspended for rude or inappropriate behaviour. You also can’t send a message unless you have a profile picture, which reassures your dates that you’ve been verified.

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20. Telegraph Dating

Best For: Mature Daters with an Interest in Politics and Current Affairs

Costs: £12 a Month to Subscribe

If you feel like the odd one out for seeking love in later life, don’t fear. Telegraph Dating is here to help, and it’s particularly great if you’re on the hunt for a soul with similar opinions on politics and current affairs. What better place than a newspaper dating website to find the love of your life?

On Telegraph Dating, you can filter profiles by region, making it easy to find a partner who lives close to you. As you set up a free profile, you’ll be prompted to describe the type of person you’re searching for. You can then browse the site, view others’ profiles and send your ideal match a message.

This free membership allows you to read messages from your matches and reply with a one-liner. To start conversations and write personal, customised messages, you’ll need to pay £12 per month for 12 months.

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21. Single With Kids

Best For: Single Parents Looking for Love

Costs: Free Sign-Up

Single With Kids is a dating website dedicated to single parents seeking love. They know that dating with children can be a total minefield. You’re likely to be short on money and you’re certain to be short on time – so how can you squeeze it all in? SWK makes things easy. Sign up for free, specify the type of person you’re looking for and filter your results by area.

If that wasn’t enough, the site gives advanced tips for dating with children, as well as writing your profile, staying safe and a single parents forum. They’ve got your back.

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How to Have a Good First Date

Admittedly, most of it does just come down to whether you have that initial attraction or not, but even if they are your type on paper, nerves could get the better of you. If you’re feeling a little apprehensive about your first online date, follow these fail-safe tips for avoiding any awkward silences…

1. Stay Calm Beforehand

The best way to prepare for a first date is to stay calm beforehand. Think about questions you might ask if the conversation dries up (without sounding like you’re interviewing them), and practise positive affirmations in the mirror. Tell yourself you absolutely can do this and you’re worthy of going on a date with them.

2. Choose an Active Date Idea

If you’re feeling a little nervous, there’s nothing more daunting than the thought of sitting in front of one another bearing your souls all night.

Suggest a date idea which includes an activity, like bowling or mini-golf. It’ll give you something to chat about if the conversation dries up and will help you settle those nerves.

3. Ask Lots of Questions

Asking your date lots of questions is the best way to show you’re interested. Don’t stick to small talk and try not to ask too much about their job – think about asking about their family, their hopes and dreams and what they want out of life. This will determine whether you have the things that matter in common.

4. Use Open Body Language

The key to good communication is actually not your words – it’s your body language. No matter how many dazzling and deep-delving questions you ask, if you’ve got your arms folded and your legs crossed, you aren’t going to get very far.

Make lots of eye contact and keep your body language open. You’ll reap the benefits.

5. Be Positive

If you go into your date with a positive attitude, you’re much more likely to have a good time – and your date will, too!

Tell yourself it’s going to go well, act like it is from the beginning and smile lots. Although not too much… you don’t want to look creepy.

6. Split the Bill

Who should pay for the bill on a first date is one of the most widely debated aspects of first date etiquette. Should the person who initiated the date pick up the bill? Should you be all traditional and allow the man to pay? What if you’re on a same-sex date? Gah! So many questions.

These days, it’s most common to split the bill equally. That way, you won’t feel like you owe them a second date if you didn’t enjoy it. That said, if your date really does insist on paying, it’s much more polite to graciously accept than to argue and make things awkward.

7. Text Them Afterwards

Apparently, only 4% of people think you should purposely wait before replying to a message from a date, so if you’ve enjoyed your time then let them know. Trying to act cool by waiting three days help no-one, particularly in today’s age of instant communication.

Equally, if the date wasn’t all you’d hoped for, don’t be afraid to send them a quick message to let them know you don’t think they’re the right person for you. Be kind, but remember honesty is the best policy.

8. Be Prepared for Rejection

Sadly, it happens, and there’s no better way to soften the blow than prepare for it. If someone decides they don’t want a second or third date, try not to see it as a loss. Instead, it’s an opportunity to move on and find the person who really does want to be with you! Onwards and upwards, as they say.

READ MORE:17 Things Guests Really Hate About Weddings

How to Stay Safe When Online Dating

Dating online can be a little daunting, and it’s important to remember that a (very) small minority of people might not be who they say they are.

With that in mind, it’s crucial that you stay safe when you head off on your first online dates.  Follow our top tips to ensure you’re doing everything properly.

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1. Be Cautious

As the age-old saying goes, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. If you’re feeling suspicious of someone’s profile, report it to the dating website and don’t arrange to meet them.

You should also be cautious when it comes to your personal information – be wary of anyone who asks for a lot of information early on. Don’t share your address, date of birth or financial information (that should be obvious, but just to be sure).

It might be a good idea to set up a new email address to use for online dating, and maybe even a cheap pay-as-you-go phone for making phone calls and sending texts.

2. Try Doing Some Detective Work

Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have done this anyway. Try doing your own detective work and ask your date for their full name before meeting them. That way, you can track them down on social media and check they look like they’re who they say they are.

3. Arrange to Meet in a Public Place

Never invite your date to your home or agree to visit theirs on a first date. Arrange to meet your match in a restaurant or coffee shop – somewhere that you’re going to be surrounded by lots of people.

4. Tell a Friend What Your Plans Are

If you’re heading out on a first date with someone you’ve never met before, be sure to tell a close friend or family member where you are, what time you’re meeting and who you’re meeting.

We’d always recommend sharing your location with them on WhatsApp or your iPhone – and you should be sure to check in with them at regular intervals throughout the date. Without being that person who’s glued to their phone, obvs.

5. Make Your Own Travel Arrangements

Make your own way to your date and don’t accept the offer of a lift – no matter how snazzy they say their car is.

You should also make sure you have your own route back planned. This way, you remain in control and you aren’t relying on another person if you want to leave early. This leads us onto our final point…

6. Don’t Be Scared to Leave

If you aren’t enjoying your date as much as you should be, or if you feel uncomfortable at any point, you are well within your rights to leave. This person is a stranger, and if they make you feel uneasy, you don’t owe it to them to stay.

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So there we have it, our complete guide to internet dating and the best dating sites and apps of the moment. Once you’ve got your first date out of the way, take a look at our round-up of the best unique date ideas to mix things up on numbers two and three.

By PTI

THANE: A 36-year-old married man from Bhayandar in Thane district of Maharashtra was forced to pay the ransom of over Rs 6 lakh after he was held captive by a woman, who had befriended him through a 'dating' app, and her associates, police said on Monday.

An FIR was registered at the Shree Nagar police station on charges of extortion, robbery and other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after the victim approached the police this morning, but no arrest is made so.

An officer said the victim, who manufactures and sells furniture, had come in contact with a woman last July through a 'dating service' app- 'Quack Quack'.

The woman invited him to Thane city and when he arrived at the scheduled location in the Shree Nagar area, she took him to her house, the officer said quoting the FIR.

"The man was held captive in her house by the woman and other accused-one of them a woman- who thrashed him and demanded Rs 10 lakh for releasing him.

They threatened the victim to defame him if he fails to pay up.

They snatched credit cards of the victim and his wife and withdrew Rs 6,32,100 before allowing him to go," the officer said, adding that further investigation is underway.

From an ill-advised return to news to a weirdly Orwellian streaming service, Facebook has recently insisted on presenting us with a variety of new features no one asked for instead of the one thing everyone actively wants from the platform: i.e., for it to stop mishandling our personal data and/or to maybe just cease existing entirely. 

Facebook’s most recent attempt to win us over comes in the form of Facebook Dating, the in-app dating feature that launched in the U.S. earlier this month following a presumably (if surprisingly) successful international run in 19 countries outside America over the past year.

People have a lot of questions about Facebook Dating, like, “Why does this exist?” and “Who would use this?” My own most pressing question following the release was not the why or the who, but rather, has anyone actually used this? This question was prompted and gradually exacerbated by the nearly two full weeks it took for the platform to start suggesting matches after I initially set up my profile on the supposed launch date. At long last, however, Facebook finally coughed up some matches, and it turns out people actually are using it. It also turns out I hadn’t been missing much in the interim!

Full disclosure, I was over Facebook before being over Facebook was cool. Or, rather, I was over Facebook when Facebook was still cool. I didn’t make a Facebook account until 2014, and I only did it then because at the time you had to have one to use Tinder. In those days, being on Tinder was almost as shameful as being on Facebook is now, so I kept both accounts largely under wraps. Today I will tell literally anyone anything they want to know — and plenty of things they probably don’t — about my swiping habits, but will still rarely post anything on Facebook. 

In other words, I’m not really Facebook Dating’s target user. The platform’s whole schtick is that it uses the information it assumes you’ve been feeding Facebook for years in order to play matchmaker based on common interests, events, etc., thus presumably leading to more “authentic” matches than your standard swiping apps. 

That’s if you’re inclined to believe the word of a notoriously shady social media platform with a vested interest in getting you to provide more personal information so they can use it for ad-targeting … er, I mean, set you up with your perfect match.

Anyway, whether we asked for it or not, Facebook Dating is here, and based on the 219 notifications I had this morning, someone is in fact using it, so let’s review. 

Setup

First, a few basics. The primary way in which Facebook Dating differs from its dating app predecessors is that it is the first of its kind to be hosted by an existing social media platform. Naturally, this may be cause for concern among people who are still carrying around residual dating app shame from 2014 and don’t necessarily want their Facebook friends to know they’re online dating. Rest assured, your Facebook Dating profile is entirely separate from your Facebook profile, and you have to opt in to use it. Your Facebook profile won’t indicate that you’re using Facebook Dating, and your profile won’t be shown to Facebook friends. If you’re really looking for maximum secrecy, you can also tell Facebook Dating not to show your profile to friends of friends — which, as Insider pointed out, may be an inadvertently useful tool for cheaters looking to step out on a partner without getting caught by single friends on other dating apps, so do with that what you will.

Anyway, Facebook thinks it knows you pretty well, so when you first opt in to Facebook Dating, it offers to build you a “suggested profile” using photos and information from your regular profile. If you’re like me and haven’t told Facebook anything about your life in over two years, this is basically useless and will result in a dating profile full of outdated or borderline incoherent information. 

The platform’s first attempt at building a dating profile for me churned out the following: 

• “Works as internship”
• “Works at AbbVie Pharmaceuticals” (this is half true, I was once a nepotism intern at big pharma)
• “Studied at Connecticut College”

One out of three ain’t bad? Meanwhile, the photos it selected for my profile included a blurry picture with an ex-boyfriend from 2017 and the black-and-white selfie from 2016 I replaced it with when we broke up. Nice! 

Fortunately, you can change everything, or just forego Facebook’s suggested profile entirely and start from scratch. The only thing it locks in are your name and age — sorry catfishers. In edit, you can add/adjust: 

Your Basics – Includes: a bio of up to 500 characters, gender, height, and hometown 

Your Work and Education – Includes: job title, company, high school, college, grad school

Your Lifestyle – Weirdly seems to only include “children” (for which your options are: doesn’t have children, have children, prefer not to say)

Your Beliefs – Which only includes “religious views,” for which your options are: Agnostic, Atheist, Buddhist, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Spiritual, Other, or prefer not to say.  

This is all pretty standard profile information that you’ll find on most major dating apps, with the exception of Tinder, which has maintained a doggedly minimalist approach that largely reduces users to the sum of their age and first profile picture (as well it should be).

Photos

Speaking of profile pictures, Facebook Dating lets you include up to nine of them, which is also pretty standard across most dating apps. One major flaw on Facebook’s part? You can’t rearrange the order of your pictures once they’re posted, meaning you have to upload them in the order you want them to appear. If you don’t know that and you end up with, say, three pictures in a row where you’re essentially sitting in the same cross-legged pose because apparently that was a phase you went through last fall, you’ll have to delete and redownload them in your preferred order. This is an annoying relic of dating apps past that most have since resolved. Tinder, Bumble and Hinge all allow you to easily drag your photos to reorder them at will. 

You can also choose to answer questions. This is a feature perhaps most notably popularized by Hinge, in which the platform provides a bunch of prompts and you can have your answers displayed on your profile in an attempt to give users a more well-rounded vision of who you are as a person. On Hinge it’s mandatory to answer a certain number of questions, but later adopters like Bumble and now Facebook Dating have kept it optional. 

Finally, you can connect your Instagram account, which is part of Facebook’s ongoing push to integrate the two social media platforms. This will allow Facebook Dating users to see your Instagram posts and captions on Facebook Dating, even if your Instagram is private. This is also a pretty standard feature across major dating apps. In the future, Facebook reportedly plans to integrate Instagram stories into Facebook Dating as well, which it says will “help you show, rather than tell, who you are” more authentically than a “static profile.” 

Preferences

Once you’re done plugging in your own information, it’s time to set up your preferences — i.e. what you’d like to see in your prospective matches. Facebook will let you filter your matches based on: 

Distance from You – This is New York, where dating someone who lives four miles away is generous. But Facebook will let you pursue matches as far away as 124 miles if you’re looking to get into an LDR. (I compromised at 7.) By comparison, Tinder, Bumble and Hinge all cap at 100 miles, so maybe Facebook is hoping to get ahead of the game by giving you an extra 24 miles in which to find your soulmate.

Want to Date – For which your options are: women, trans women, men, trans men, and non-binary people. Obviously, you can select as many as you want. 

Age Range – 18 – 100+ (same as Tinder)

Height Range – Which can fall anywhere between less than 3 ft. to 7+ ft.

Their Lifestyle – Again, this is just about children, and it displays the same options you could select for your own profile. Interestingly, it also adds the disclaimer that while you’re “more likely to see people who meet this preference, we’ll sometimes show you people who don’t.” 

Their Beliefs – Religious views. Again, Facebook lets you know that while it will take your preferences into consideration, it may encourage you to broaden your worldview a bit. 

In general, the profile setup is pretty straightforward and doesn’t differ significantly from any other major dating apps, incorporating many of the same features from each.

Usage 

Once your profile is set up, it’s time to start swiping. Just kidding! Like Hinge, Facebook Dating foregoes the swiping model made famous by Tinder in an attempt to encourage users to take a more thoughtful approach to considering potential matches. 

Ultimately, however, you’re still either “liking” or “passing” on a profile by tapping a heart or an X, respectively. Like Hinge, Facebook Dating gives you the option of liking and commenting on a specific aspect of a person’s profile — like one of their pictures or prompt answers. Unlike Hinge, however, you can also just like an entire profile by tapping the heart if you’re not actually in the mood to put too much thought into it. 

Facebook says it shows you potential matches based on the preferences you outlined, as well as the interests, events, groups and other information you’ve foolishly handed over to the social media platform over the years. You can like anyone Facebook shows you, and they’ll be notified. If they like you back, you’ll match, at which point you can message them. This obviously works both ways — Facebook Dating will let you know who already liked you, so you can match or pass on them accordingly. 

Again, this all fairly standard stuff that mirrors many aspects of various mainstream dating apps. One of the few features that really sets Facebook Dating apart from competitors, however, is the “Secret Crush” feature. While, as mentioned, Facebook Dating won’t show you any of your Facebook friends, the Secret Crush feature is your chance to shoot your shot with someone you presumably know in real life without leaving the safety net of internet anonymity. 

The feature lets you select up to nine Facebook friends and/or Instagram followers as “Secret Crushes.” When you do, they’ll get a notification that someone has a crush on them, but Facebook won’t out you as their secret admirer unless they happen to put you on their Secret Crush list as well. I have not and will not test this particular feature, primarily because my only Facebook friends are random locals from my hometown, but also because years of app-dating broke my brain and now I’m only capable of being attracted to strangers on the internet. 

Last but not least, the prospects. When Bumble emerged as Tinder’s first major competitor, everyone claimed the new app boasted a better-looking collection of swipers than its predecessor. Now, the court of public opinion tends to hail Hinge as the top source for high quality matches. 

So far, I’ve yet to see this pattern play out for Facebook Dating. Aside from my matches on the platform, I’ve yet to interact with a real person in real life who is actually even using Facebook Dating. I will say, however, that I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the crop of prospective matches I’ve seen. As with any dating app, there’s plenty of garbage to sift through, but it’s not the absolute trash heap of locals and Republican uncles I assumed would comprise the majority of Facebook Dating’s primary user base.

That’s about it. In my expert opinion as a five-year dating app veteran who’s spent virtually the entirety of my adult dating life on apps, Facebook Dating is okay, and that’s really all there is to say about it. With the exception of increased protection against running into friends/coworkers/friends of friends on the app, it doesn’t really offer anything significant that you couldn’t get on any other major dating app. So unless you still suffer from 2014 levels of dating app shame or you’re looking to cheat without going on Ashley Madison, there’s really no reason to bother using Facebook Dating, and it’s also not the deterrent I assume its creators were hoping it would be against permanently deleting your account.

In conclusion, do I recommend Facebook Dating? Not particularly. Am I going to stop you from using it? No, do what you want. I’ll be deleting Facebook Dating now, largely on principle, but if anyone needs me, you can always find me on Tinder.

We’re all about love at Hitched – whether that’s helping you tie the knot with your soulmate or helping you find them.

Half of all singletons now use online dating sites and apps to help them find love (or lust, *cough cough* Tinder), so it’s no longer embarrassing or cringe-worthy to admit to it. Actually, we found nearly 1 in 10 couples who ended up married met on Tinder!

Seriously, online dating is as normal as ordering your groceries on the web. With more than 1,400 dating sites and apps floating around the internet, it has never been easier to find one that suits your wants and needs. Whether you want someone bi, Christian, cough dating site, a farmer, a rock music fan, degree-educated or something completely different, there’s an app for that.

We’ve rounded up 21 of the best online dating sites and apps for you to choose from, plus some tips for staying safe and having your best first online date ever. Your happily ever after begins here.

NB: We have included third party products to help you navigate and enjoy life’s biggest moments. Purchases made through links on this page may earn us a woman successfully sues dating agency over lack of men MORE:The 16 Best Sex Toy Shops Online

The Best Online Dating Sites and Apps

1. Tinder

Image: Getty

Best for: Casual Dating

Costs: Free

Next up is the king of the dating apps. The OG, if you like. It might have a bit of a bad rep for casual sex and no-strings-attached flings, but with two billion views per day, who’s to say you can’t find the love of your life by swiping right?

Tinder is photo heavy and cough dating site users to swipe to arrange dates. You can scroll cough dating site users’ photos, “super like” people who really take your fancy and start conversations with those who have liked your profile in return. What’s more, it picks up your location so you can track down potential matches wherever you are in the world.

Tinder’s main stumbling block is that it doesn’t allow you to include quite as much information about yourself as other dating apps do. That makes it harder to judge whether someone would be a good match for you… you’re going off appearances, basically, cough dating site. You can include your name, cough dating site, job, company, education, location and links to your Spotify and Instagram accounts. Since the app is responsible cough dating site one million dates per week, it must be doing something right.

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2. eHarmony

Best for: Marriage Seekers

Costs: £12.95 Per Month

If you’re sick and tired cough dating site dates with people you just don’t have anything cough dating site common with, it might be time for some serious personality matching, cough dating site. That’s where eHarmony comes in. They’ve been around for over a decade and have a patented eHarmony Compatibility Matching System which took 35 years to create. It’s a very in-depth relationship questionnaire which gives the team the ability to match users with people they’re actually compatible with. Yep – they take this love stuff pretty seriously.

There are over 60 million members on the site from around the world. Five million of these live in Britain, so there are plenty cough dating site people to choose cough dating site. The team state that someone finds love every 14 minutes on average using eHarmony, cough dating site. Isn’t it worth a shot?

When you sign up, you’ll fill out their trusty questionnaire which pairs singletons according to 18 dimensions of compatibility (it might sound complicated but it’s for your own good – trust us). After that, cough dating site, all you need to do is wait for potential suitors to drop straight to your inbox!

You can scroll through them at leisure, set up dates, and even make the most of their guided communication tool if you’re free dating apps for android phones to know what to say.

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READ MORE:25 Unique Date Ideas That You Definitely Won’t Have Thought Of

3. LoveStruck

Best for: Very Busy People

Costs: Upwards of £16 Per Month

Are you a busy young professional with a high-flying job and very little spare time? Join LoveStruck, the dating app which is perfect for looking for love in the city.

It allows you to target potential partners according to their location – which can be as specific as a tube station – and it covers many of the world’s major cities. This is ideal if you’re working abroad for a while.

LoveStruck pride themselves on offering cough dating site dating experience which is meaningful, cough dating site. You can anime and gaming dating sites genuine singles who are looking to date with the intention of something serious. You can also add fun date ideas to your profile and match with people according to their date ideas, which we love. It’s time to get your thinking caps on…

If that wasn’t enough, the site hosts regular events which are a fun and relaxed way to meet others. Take that BFF who won’t stop banging on about her wedding planning, we dare you.

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4. Plenty of Fish

Best For: Fussy Daters

Costs: Free with Additional Paid-For Features

Plenty of Fish has more than 150 million registered users worldwide and claims to be responsible for creating more relationships and conversations than any other free dating app.

We have to admit – it isn’t the prettiest of websites. It looks more like it’s trying to sell you some sort of computer software more than it is true love. That said, they have a pretty hefty selection of success stories which cough dating site persuade you they know exactly what they’re doing.

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to take a chemistry test which allows them to match you with personalities that lead to long lasting, stable cough dating site. You can cough dating site discover your relationship needs and cough dating site the team to tell you what you need in a relationship and how to make your next relationship a success. We can hear wedding bells already.

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5. Match.com

Image: Getty

Best for: Nervous Newbies

Costs: £12.99 Per Month

Match is one of the most widely used dating sites in the world. It works in the traditional way: you create a profile, you check out your matches, you start chatting and you arrange a date. It’s a pretty fail-safe way of doing things, and is great for those who are newly single and wanting to put themselves back out there.

Since match.com is so well known, it attracts a wide demographic, upping your chances of finding someone you’ll click with. You can filter matches with their advanced matching feature, and even put yourself into “zen mode&rdquo. This means that cough dating site only contacted by those who meet your criteria.

In addition, Match put on a variety of events for single people near you, giving cough dating site that added nudge in the right direction.

It’s free to become a member of match.com, but you can only send and receive messages if you pay their £12.99 per month subscription fee. A small price to pay for finding the love of your life, right?

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6. Muddy Matches

Best For: Country Bumpkins

Costs: £94 for 12 Months

See, we told you there was something for everyone. Muddy Matches is a dating website dedicated to matching lovers of the countryside – from farmers to city dwellers who have a bit of a thing for men in tweed jackets. Finding someone who shares your interests and a similar lifestyle is important for long-lasting happiness, cough dating site, so we’re all ears when it comes to this site.

You can check your account from any field you might be wandering at the time (there’s a fab, cough dating site app), and you can take their quiz to find out just how “muddy” you really are (a kind of weird, albeit fun, touch).

Membership is free but you can only send messages to your potential suitors if you pay the £94 annual subscription free.

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7. Hinge

Best For: Millennials

Costs: Free with Additional Paid-For Features

Hinge is the new kid on the block when it comes to dating apps and cough dating site daters are evangelical about it. The brand’s catch phrase is “Meet people who want to get off dating apps too” – a sentiment we really like.

In our opinion, it has one up on Tinder, because it allows you to put way more information about yourself in your profile. It’s also more fun, cough dating site, because instead of simply uploading photos and a one-line bio, you have to answer questions like “Who was your childhood crush?” Your matches can then like the answers to your questions, allowing you to spark up a conversation. You can link up your Instagram and display lots of fun facts about yourself in one smooth, scroll-able profile page. You only get to send 10 likes per day, cough dating site, meaning the matches created are meaningful.

Another fab feature is their “Date Ideas” page. Every month, Hinge employees go on dates, cough dating site, rate their experiences and share their date ideas. There’s a whole host of ideas uploaded regularly, from zoo visits to afternoons spent in cat cafes.

Hinge is free to download. This gives you unlimited access to profiles, swiping and sending messages, cough dating site. Result. If you want, you can upgrade your membership to a “preferred” one, cough dating site, which allows you to better filter results and make things more specific.

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8. OkCupid

Best For: Those with a Specific Checklist

Cost: Free with Additional Paid-For Features

When you first sign up to OkCupid, you have to choose what type of relationship you’re looking for – whether that be a hook-up, cough dating site, or a short-term relationship. You can also choose from 22 different genders (in 2014, the app were the first to introduce 22 genders and 13 sexual orientation options), including non-binaries and agenders. For that, we applaud them.

After this, you’re asked a series of 15 questions which cover everything from politics cough dating site religion. They’re all optional, cough dating site, though, and cough dating site you give your own answers or not, you get the chance to say how your ideal partner would respond to them.

It’s all of this ground work which ensures the matches Totally free local dating sends to you are worthwhile, cough dating site. You can inject a bit of personality into your profile too, by answering questions like “do you make your bed every day?&rdquo. Instead of being spammed with messages, you can only message those with whom cough dating site have matched.

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9. Bumble

Best For: Putting Women in the Driving Seat

Costs: Free

Bumble made itself famous by addressing the gender imbalance in dating apps. Yep, listen up ladies – this one forces you to start all the conversations you have. And time is of the essence, because you only have 24 hours to initiate a conversation before your match is gone forever. No pressure, then.

Granted, your profile won’t be as detailed as it might be on other apps, but there is a video call ability which allows you to get to know your match before you meet.

Bumble is free to use, but you can upgrade to Bumble Boost, cough dating site, where you can see users who have already “liked” you. This costs £11.16 best dating websites free month for 6 months or £2.49 for the day.

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10. HER

Best For: Queer, Bisexual & Lesbian Women

Costs: Free

Hoorah! A dating app which is exclusively for queer, bisexual and lesbian women has finally landed on the dating scene. With four million users worldwide, HER is cough dating site easy to use and really seems to be making waves in the world of love.

Not only are there moderators working 24/7 to ensure the platform is safe to use, but it allows you to upload four photographs and as much information about yourself as you please. You’ll be able to see when other women have liked your profile, and it tells you their sexual orientation cough dating site how far away from you they are.

In addition to their super sleek app, HER also put on events in your area so you can meet other like-minded people.

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11. Happn

Best For: Young Professionals

Costs: Free

Happn is the app of the moment for busy people – particularly busy people who are too awkward to start a conversation. As much as we’d like to think we’d chat away to a stranger after catching eyes on the train, we’re all probably too awkward and British to do so.

Luckily, Happn works by tracking your approximate location (not your exact one, don’t worry), and displaying users you’ve crossed paths with at the top of the page. If you like what you see, cough dating site, you can send a heart. If they send a heart back then you can start a conversation.

Remember that gorgeous guy you bumped into on the way out of the station this morning? He just might be at the top of your home page.

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12. Tastebuds

Best For: Music Lovers

Costs: £8 Per Month

If you’re adamant that your future husband or wife has got to have the same taste in music as you, Tastebuds is the site you should head towards. Similar music taste can be a great indicator of compatibility, after all.

This fab dating website gets you to pick three artists or bands that you like and the gender you’re looking to date. That’s it, cough dating site. You can chat to new people who like the same music as you, find concert buddies and discover new music liked by other users based on your tastes.

One thing’s for sure, you’ll never be stuck for an icebreaker if this is the dating website you choose to use – a shared taste in music is the best conversation starter of them all!

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13. MySingleFriend.com

Best for: Shy People

Costs: £13 Per Month

MySingleFriend.com is the dating website which banishes all the *cringe* around having to blow your own trumpet when you make a dating profile, cough dating site. It works on the premise that most people actually don’t want to do that, and the best people to big them up are their friends.

Each member on this dating website is put forward and described – or embarrassed – by a friend, and the result is a chatty and friendly space where people can talk, meet and fall in love. Here’s hoping.

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14. Shaadi.com

Best For: Single Indians Looking for Love

Costs: Free

Shaadi.com positions itself as the “No. 1 Indian matrimonial service in the United Kingdom” which has enabled upwards of six million people to find love on the site.

It’s exclusively for people looking for marriage – illustrated by the fact that you have to set your preference to “bride” or “groom” when you sign up.

You can filter results based on age, cough dating site, height, religion, mother tongue, location, marital status and whether you have children. You can even change your membership level to unlock further benefits. With a personalised membership, you’ll get a relationship advisor who sets up dates on your behalf! Things could not be easier.

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15. Christian Connection

Best For: Christians Looking for Something Long-Term

Costs: Free with Some Paid-For Features

Christian Connection is one of the best religious dating sites and apps out there. It matches (yep, you guessed it) Christians with other Christians looking for long-term love. They recognise that outside of church and work, it’s often difficult to meet single, like-minded people.

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to create a detailed profile outlining your job, political views, religious standpoints, dream holiday destinations and more. Don’t be put off by the tonne of questions – they’ll help you in the long run!

From there, things couldn’t be simpler. If you see someone you like, simply “wave” at them and get chatting. They also have loads of help and advice covering everything from dating, relationships and faith by top Christian writers on their blog, plus regular dating events and free member-run meet-ups! What a better way to meet people like you?

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16. Scruff

Best For: Slightly Older Gay, Bi and Trans Men

Costs: Free

Scruff was originally created exclusively for men who like men with beards, but recent years have seen their database expand to men on all ends of the facial hair spectrum.

It works a little like Tinder and has you swiping left and right on potential partners – right for those you like. You can also click the “woof” button to show someone them you find them attractive.

Scruff has an older intake than Grindr, but it’s playful, easy to use and perfect for gay, cough dating site, bi and trans men.

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17. Elite Singles

Best For: Well-Educated Singles

Costs: Free with Paid-For Features

If you’re apprehensive about using a dating site which requires you to judge solely on appearance, you may prefer EliteSingles, cough dating site. It matches partners using a comprehensive personality test and only sends between three and seven matches per day – all of which are manually verified.

85% of users to the site have a degree and are between 30 and 55 years old, so this particular dating website is perfect for educated singles in their 40s. If this sounds like you – what are you cough dating site for?

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18. Dating Direct

Best For: Bagging an Easy Date

Costs: £12.99 Per Month for a 6 Month Membership

Say hello to DatingDirect.com, the site which is perfect for beginners because it’s so easy to use. There are no frills with this one.

When you sign up, you can start looking at potential matches for free. Then, when you find someone you might be interested in, cough dating site have cough dating site pay the subscription fee to be able to strike up a conversation.

There’s an instant messaging service, and for daters who get easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of people out there (around 20 million on Dating Direct, to be exact), you’ll get cough dating site daily email with six potential matches, cough dating site. It saves you sifting through masses of potentials but still gives you enough variation to find a compatible date. Bingo.

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19. Lumen

Best For: Mature Dating

Costs: Free with Paid-For Features

Lumen often gets described as Tinder for the over 50s, despite an absence of the swiping feature which Tinder became famous for. It’s an app with mature dating at its heart, where you can chat to potential suitors and arrange to meet.

We love their “icebreaker” feature – this is the term they have coined for the first message you send to someone. Your “icebreaker” message has a strict requirement of at least 50 characters (nope, sadly you can’t just put ‘hi’) which is a great way to get a proper conversation going. Your messages will disappear from your inbox after 72 hours if you fail to reply, and your matches are based primarily on location.

Lumen has strict security procedures, meaning it’s a totally safe place to meet a potential partner. All profiles get checked and verified, and live accounts can be suspended for rude or inappropriate behaviour. You also can’t send a message unless you have a profile picture, which reassures your dates that you’ve been verified.

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20. Telegraph Dating

Best For: Mature Daters with an Interest in Politics and Current Affairs

Costs: £12 a Month to Subscribe

If you feel like the odd one out for seeking love in later life, don’t fear. Telegraph Dating is here to help, and it’s particularly great if you’re on the hunt for a soul with similar opinions on politics and current affairs. What cough dating site place than a newspaper dating website to find the love of your life?

On Telegraph Dating, cough dating site, you can filter profiles by region, making it easy to find a partner who lives close to you. As you set up a free profile, you’ll be prompted to describe the type of person you’re cough dating site for. You can then browse the site, view others’ profiles and send your ideal match a message.

This free membership allows you to read messages from your matches and reply with a one-liner. To start conversations and write personal, customised messages, you’ll need to pay £12 per month for 12 months.

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21. Single With Kids

Best For: Single Parents Looking for Love

Costs: Free Sign-Up

Single With Kids is a dating website dedicated to single parents seeking love. They know that dating with children can be a total minefield. You’re likely to be short on money and you’re certain to be short on time – so how can you squeeze it all in? SWK makes things easy. Sign up for free, cough dating site, specify the type of person you’re looking for and filter your results by area.

If that wasn’t enough, the site gives advanced tips for dating with children, cough dating site, as well as writing your profile, staying safe and a single parents forum. They’ve got your back.

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How to Have a Good First Date

Admittedly, most of it does just come down to whether you have that initial attraction or not, cough dating site, but even if they are your type on paper, nerves could get the better of you. If you’re feeling a little apprehensive 100 free poly dating sites your first online date, follow these fail-safe tips for avoiding any awkward silences…

1. Stay Calm Beforehand

The best way to prepare for a first date is to stay calm beforehand. Think about questions you might ask if the conversation dries up (without sounding like you’re interviewing them), and practise positive affirmations in the mirror. Tell yourself you absolutely can do this and you’re worthy of going on a date with them.

2, cough dating site. Choose an Active Date Idea

If you’re feeling a little nervous, there’s nothing more daunting than the thought of sitting in front of one another bearing your souls all night.

Suggest a date idea which includes an activity, like bowling or mini-golf, cough dating site. It’ll give you something to chat about if the conversation dries up and will help you settle those nerves.

3. Ask Lots of Questions

Asking your date lots of questions is the best way to show you’re interested, cough dating site. Don’t stick to small talk and try not to ask too much about their job – think about asking about their family, their hopes and dreams and what they want out of life. This will determine whether you have the things that matter in common.

4. Use Open Body Language

The key to good communication is actually not your words – it’s your body language. No matter how many dazzling and deep-delving cough dating site you ask, if you’ve got your arms folded and your legs crossed, cough dating site, you aren’t going to get very far.

Make lots of eye contact and keep your body language open. You’ll reap the benefits.

5. Be Positive

If you go into your date with a positive attitude, cough dating site, you’re much more likely to have a good time – and your date will, cough dating site, too!

Tell yourself it’s going to go well, act like it cough dating site from the beginning and smile lots. Although not too much… you don’t want to look creepy.

6. Split the Bill

Who should pay for the bill on a first date is one of the most widely debated aspects of first date etiquette. Should the person who initiated the date pick up the bill? Should you be all traditional and allow the man to pay? What if you’re on a same-sex date? Gah! So many questions.

These days, it’s most common to split the cough dating site equally. That way, you won’t feel like you owe them a second date if you didn’t cough dating site it. That said, if your date really does insist on paying, it’s much more polite to graciously accept than to argue and make things awkward.

7, cough dating site. Text Them Afterwards

Apparently, only 4% of people think you should purposely wait before replying to a message from a date, so if you’ve enjoyed your time then let them know. Trying to act cool by waiting three days help no-one, particularly in today’s age of instant communication.

Equally, if the date wasn’t all you’d hoped for, don’t be afraid dating taller girl send them a quick message to let them know you don’t think they’re the right person for you. Be kind, but remember honesty is the best policy.

8, cough dating site. Cough dating site Prepared for Rejection

Sadly, it happens, and there’s no better way to soften the blow than prepare for it. If someone decides they don’t want a second or third date, try not to see it as a loss, cough dating site. Instead, it’s an opportunity to move on and find the person who really does want to be with you! Onwards and upwards, as they say.

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How to Stay Safe When Online Dating

Dating online can be a little daunting, and it’s important to remember that a (very) small minority of people might not be who they say they are.

With that in mind, it’s crucial that you stay safe when you head off on your first online dates.  Follow our top tips to ensure you’re doing everything properly.

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1. Be Cautious

As the age-old saying goes, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. If you’re feeling suspicious cough dating site someone’s profile, report it to the dating website and don’t arrange to meet them.

You should also be cautious when it comes to your personal information – be wary of anyone who asks for a lot of information early on. Don’t share your address, date of birth or financial information (that should be obvious, but just to be sure).

It might be a good idea to set up a new email address to use for online dating, and maybe even a cheap pay-as-you-go phone for making phone calls and sending texts.

2. Try Doing Some Detective Work

Don’t pretend you wouldn’t have done this anyway. Try doing your own detective work and ask your date for their full name before meeting them, cough dating site. That way, you can track them down on social media and check they look like they’re who they say they are.

3. Arrange to Meet in a Public Place

Never invite your date to your home or agree to visit theirs on a first date, cough dating site. Arrange to meet your match in a restaurant or coffee shop – somewhere that you’re going to be surrounded by lots of people.

4. Tell a Friend What Your Plans Are

If you’re heading out on a first date cough dating site someone you’ve never cough dating site before, be sure to tell a close friend or family member where you are, what time you’re meeting and who you’re meeting.

We’d always recommend sharing your location with them on WhatsApp or your iPhone – and you should be sure to check in with them at regular intervals throughout the date. Without being that person who’s glued to their phone, obvs.

5. Make Your Own Travel Arrangements

Make your own way to your date and don’t accept the offer of a lift – no matter how snazzy they say their car is.

You should also make sure you have your own route back planned. This way, you remain in control and you aren’t relying on another person if you want to leave early. This leads us onto our final point…

6. Don’t Be Scared to Leave

If you aren’t enjoying your date as much as you should be, or if you feel uncomfortable at any point, you are well within your rights to leave. This person is a stranger, and if they make you feel uneasy, you don’t owe it to them to stay.

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So there we have it, our complete guide to internet dating and the best dating sites and apps of the moment. Once you’ve got your first date out cough dating site the way, take a look at our round-up of the best unique date ideas to mix things up on numbers two and three.