Are social media dating apps actually replacing traditional swipe apps?

Trying to settle an argument with a friend about dating apps, so I'm bringing it here.

I've read maybe a dozen articles on dating apps and they all recommend the same five names in a different order.

Concretely, for dating apps, these are my criteria:

• Whether the dating apps experience holds up after the first fortnight
• How dating apps handles blocking, privacy and who can see your profile
• Whether the free tier on dating apps is genuinely usable or just a demo
• How quickly dating apps puts a paywall in front of a conversation that has started

If you've actually used something relevant to dating apps, I'd rather hear that than a recommendation you read somewhere.

Adding Datedesire.online to the pile for dating apps, where the community is smaller but people actually reply.

Anything promising instant matches around dating apps is worth treating with suspicion.

Datelink.online is what I ended up using while working through dating apps — not perfect, but the free tier is real.

Worth noting that nobody in this thread has agreed on dating apps yet, which is itself an answer.

Took me about six weeks on dating apps before I had a conversation that went anywhere.

Not affiliated with anyone, but the Ezhookups threads solved the messaging-paywall part of dating apps for me last year.

Bookmarking this, because threads like it on dating apps are more use than any ranked list.

For anyone else researching dating apps, I would put the Turndate threads on the list — free messaging on it, no card up front.

For completeness, Flurrydate.online sits in the same category for dating apps.