Lulu (free) technically isnt a dating app-its a researching app
On the surface, FaceMatch looks like your typical Hot-or-Not type of app-its a gamified dating app in which youre asked to choose the hotter of two people. Each “game” consists of five matches; once youre done “playing,” you can go back and take a look at the people you thought were hot (or rather, hotter). And then you can message them.
Oh wait, no you cant. See, theres another level to FaceMatch: Social currency. According to creator Val Lefebvre, the big problem with dating apps today is that they dont separate the wheat from the chaff. Lefebvre) are stuck getting messages from less attractive people, and thats just…terrible, I guess. So, to fix this, Lefebvre has introduced the idea of social currency-the more “likes” your profile gets (that is, the more people who think youre hot), the more you can communicate with others on the site. If you have a highly ranked profile, you can message just about anyone you want. But if you have a low-ranked profile, well, you have to wait to be messaged by other people.
Yeah, any app that actually encourages you to stalk your date is probably something you should avoid if you want to have a healthy relationship
There are a few obvious issues with this setup. First of all, its completely biased toward conventionally attractive people. But life is already biased toward conventionally attractive people, so is it really a great idea to exacerbate this? Second, if two less attractive people like each other, but neither has enough social currency to start a conversation with the other, well…I guess theyre just stuck Single-Dating-Website in weird dating app limbo. And, you know, this whole concept is degrading.
But because stalking- er, researching-a guy online fits within the realm of online dating, Ive decided to include it in this round up.
The premise of Lulu sounds somewhat noble: Its a private, anonymous, ladies-only network where women can “share their experiences” and “make seless rating app where girls can rate guys theyve known or dated with hashtags like #AlwaysPays and #ManChild. Women can also give guys scores (out of 10) for various categories, including style, humor, manners, ambition, and commitment. Again, the idea here is that women can “research” potential partners by, um, looking at other girls experiences with said partners (to be fair, most of the reviews on the app appear to be from guys friends, rather than one-night stands).
Lulu: The “Burn Book” of the App Store, where men create profiles and ask women to rate them. Um… who would subject himself to that?
That said, Lulu isnt quite as bad as it sounds. First of all, it works on an opt-in model-any guy reviewed on the app has to first sign up for the app (guys can track their Lulu reviews, though they cant review other guys). If, at any time, they decide they dont want to be on the app, they can simply remove themselves. In other words, the guys you should be worried about…probably arent on this app to begin with.
Lulu also keeps it pretty tame by giving ladies a list of hashtags to choose from-women cant enter in their own hashtags, so youre probably not going to find anything too scandalous.
For what its worth, the concept behind Down isnt awful, if you think about it. After all, it makes more sense to hook up with people you sort of know via Facebook than it does to hook up with people youve never met before via Tinder, right? But that doesnt make it any less creepy when the app asks you to rate a bunch of kids youve known since elementary school.