But none has the cachet of Raya – the private members’ club of dating apps
Who will I meet? Hinge’s bookofsex tagline is “Designed to be deleted” and the tenor of the conversations on the app makes it feel more relationship-focused than others. It is also prime territory for stumbling upon previous matches from other apps who have matured to Hinge’s aesthetic.
Word of warning Hinge founder Justin McLeod’s romance with his wife has been turned into an episode of Amazon’s Modern Love series, after the journalist Deborah Copaken’s column on him in the New York Times in 2015 went viral – but it could also be a Hinge cautionary tale. McLeod and his wife met in college, broke up and spent eight years apart before Copaken encouraged him to take action before it was too late. If they had used Hinge, they might never have found their way to each other again.
Happn
What is it for? Things get even stranger here. Happn is designed for you to meet someone in your vicinity, ideally someone you have just brushed past on the street or made awkward eye contact with on the train (perhaps like Michael Fassbender’s opening scene in Shame).
How do I use it? You need to be on the app all the time. Every time you see someone who catches your eye, you check the app to see if they are also on it. Then, rather than approach them on the street, you strike up a digital conversation, where you painstakingly recount your non-encounter in the hope that they will agree to a planned meet. Basically, a meet-cute for the socially anxious.
Who will I meet? Anyone within a 1km radius, from colleagues to commuters and – God forbid – family members.
Word of warning You are likely to bump into your matches again, so it may be harder to live down embarrassing first dates.
Raya
What is it? There are plenty of apps for those with a more rarefied taste – see EliteSingles, which caters for “professionals”; Luxy, which describes itself as a “millionaire dating app”; and Uniform Dating, for people whose jobs usually involve wearing a uniform (firefighters ready yourselves).
How do I use it? You can join only after being nominated by an anonymous “global committee”, which means Raya has become known as the dating app for celebs.
Who will I meet? While you may find Made in Chelsea or Hollyoaks cast members on Bumble, celebrities said to have been spotted on Raya in the past include Cara Delevingne, Teri Hatcher and Diplo.
Word of warning “Journalist” probably isn’t on the list of Raya-friendly professions, so there is no way to verify these rumours – unless you are able to join yourself.
Lumen
What is it? Tinder, Bumble and Hinge are generally targeted at 18- to 35-year-olds. Lumen is the dating app designed for over-50s. The statistics suggests that this demographic needs such a service: the ONS expects 42% of marriages to end in divorce, while 12.9% of 50- to 64-year-olds in England and Wales were single as of 2017. Perhaps as a result of all of this, STI rates among over-50s doubled between 2002 and 2012.
How do I use it? Founded in , Lumen reached 350,000 users in just six months with its canny reinterpretation of the swiping format. The interface is minimal but clunky – designed for the least tech-savvy Boomers – and has few market rivals.
Word of warning Facebook Dating launched recently in the US. Since 72% of all online 50- to 64-year-olds use the social media site, Lumen could have a rival on its hands.