This week on App Chat, we'll fill you on the latest apps to help you find that special someone. App Chat regular Jacqui Cheng, editor at large for Ars Technica joins us this week.
Remember from the late '90s or early 2000s when there was a site called 'HotorNot.com? Tinder actually kind of takes that idea and spins it off into an app. What you do is you sign in with Facebook so it brings in your photos and info automatically. What it does is show you a lot of photos from people near you. Then you can basically just sort of rate them: 'Yes,' you think they look good. 'No,' you are not interested.
It also shows you things like how many interests you have in common and how many friends you have in common, which it pulls in from Facebook. Then you kind of get to go through and really fast sort of decide if you like people or not. If both sides decide they like each other then they will put you in touch with each other to start chatting. So you would have to rate someone with a thumbs-up and they would have to rate you a thumbs-up, and then you can start talking.
Carrot is really a very strange app, but I guess it works. The idea is that you are offering a carrot, a bribe basically, to people to go out with you. It is sort of similar in that when you load it up, it shows you a lot of photos of people who are near you. Then you look at them and if you think they are cute or you are interested, you can tap on them and then offer them something.
So you can offer them, say, dinner or coffee. Or if you want to start getting crazy, you can offer them a vacation or a spa day. Then on the other side, they see that and then they decide whether they want to take you up on this offer to go for dinner or something and then go on a date.
These apps, especially Tinder, are a little more toward the younger crowd. Tinder has an age limit that only goes up to like 44. The more traditional apps like Match and OkCupid probably are better for the older crowd because then you can sort of be a little more traditional in what you are looking for.