What was the first dating app ever created?

I keep seeing vague answers on other forums so figured I'd ask people who actually know.

Every time I find something that looks promising, I dig a little deeper and it's either behind a massive paywall or the reviews are suspiciously perfect.

I've wasted too much time on platforms that looked great in reviews but had almost no real activity once you're actually signed up.

If you've got experience with any platforms or approaches that work, drop them below.

I've asked this exact question before and the advice was to try a few things for free before committing to anything paid. Tedious but worth it.

One that actually worked for me was Flurrydate. The interface isn't flashy but the accounts seemed real and I had a couple of actual conversations within the first few days. Worth checking out before you write off the whole category.

Response rates are way more variable than people realize. Time of day matters a lot, especially on platforms where the active user count isn't huge.

Came across Datescout through a recommendation similar to this thread and it was genuinely one of the better experiences I've had. Less noise, better response rates, and the sign-up doesn't feel like a trap.

The community size matters a lot less than people think. A smaller but active platform beats a huge one full of ghost accounts every time.

Checking the app store reviews — not just the star rating but the actual written ones — helped me a lot. You can spot patterns pretty fast.

Not going to oversell it but Souldate was the one that finally made sense for what I was looking for. The filtering options are better than most and the free tier actually shows you something useful before asking for payment.

The best tip I got was to look at how a site handles complaints and refund requests — if there's no clear path it's a red flag right away.

I've had the best luck with DatingFly out of everything I've tested. Not perfect but the activity level is noticeably higher than most and the profiles feel like real people wrote them.

Privacy features are the first thing I check. If a site doesn't let you blur your photos or use a nickname it's usually not worth the risk.