Winter is coming. And not just for the characters in Game of Thrones, but for us, too. This means it’s time to up our seasonal romance game, because if we’re going to lay in bed all weekend binging the latest reboot of Gilmore Girls, we might as well have someone to snuggle with. With that in mind, here are the apps we recommend trying, if you’re in the mood to get your swipe on.
Bumble
Bumble is basically Tinder but with the ball even more in the ladies’ court. By that I mean, women have to send the first message in order for a conversation to begin after a match has occurred. Otherwise, it works almost exactly the same as Tinder. One other cool thing about it though is Bumble BFF: if you’re just looking for new platonic friend hangs, switch over to BFF mode to find like-minded friends in your city. New friends are probably better than a fleeting romance in the long term, anyway.
Coffee Meets Bagel
Coffee Meets Bagel allows you to take things a little slower than the other apps. Instead of swiping through hundreds of profiles in minutes, it takes the time to find you one relevant match (or your “bagel”) a day according to your preferences. If you like the match, you both have seven days to talk to each other before they disappear from your app. This puts the pressure on to actually say something and maybe even set up a date, instead of chatting for weeks and inevitably ghosting when neither party bothers to inquire about a real life interaction.
Tastebuds
While it is still only available for iPhone users (why?), Tastebuds is an ideal app for the more musically inclined daters. If you never want to risk dating someone who listens to Nickelback or Coldplay, you can easily avoid them this way. Tastebuds works by matching people based on music taste, which seems a little shallow, but sometimes you just want to date someone who will happily go to all the same shows as you without complaining.
Happn
Happn is the new kid on the block, which tends to make for a more refined selection of potential matches to choose from. Its angle is slightly creepy though, if you prefer the people you match with not knowing where exactly you are located in the city. It bases your pool of suitors on other Happn users you’ve walked by throughout your day. This puts on some added pressure every time you leave your house, because you don’t want to be running to the corner store at 1am in your pajama pants and be spotted by another user you were hoping to score a date with.
