OkCupid – Is This The Dating App You Are Looking For?
by John Santana
Finding out the perfect dating partner might seem like a daunting task to you, isn’t it? Moreover, signing up for an online dating site too comes with lots of doubts and questions. Here comes the OkCupid to offer its sleek algorithm based service in showing you the person with whom you can enjoy a casual fling or even a serious relationship –it’s all up to you.
Compatibility is what plays the role here. While some feel connected to the person with whom the preferences match 100%, some might find it more thrilling to hook with that person, with whom, there is hardly any preference matching.
To put it simple, OkCupid has something for everyone…or does it? Let’s have a look.
What Is OkCupid Dating?
The four students of the Havard University, Christian Rudder, Chris Coyne, Max Krohn and San Yagan had founded this dating app in 19th January 2004 with the name of SparkMatch. It was owned by Humor Rainbow Inc initially and now IAC (Match.com) is its proud owner, boasting of around one million users daily.
OkCupid is popularly called OKC and the user suggestions will be endless, especially if you are from a typically congested urban area. With a high rating on Google Play Store and other mobile app stores, you would be enticed to know that it was acknowledged among the top ten Dating Websites by Time’s.
From general questions to those absolutely bizarre ones, OKC’s questionnaire is to record your preferences so that finding matches for you is easy. Now you might ask how they find matches and in what respect? Well, it’s all about math! Don’t cringe. The algorithms, heuristics and formulae are used to analyze your questionnaire with other people and show the matches.
Who Should Use OkCupid?
Are you the geek fellow looking for someone like you with nerdy glasses? Do you want a partner who can sit with you in comfy Pajamas watching the TV Show and sharing thoughts about art preferences? Or you are from the LGBT community looking for the partner with whom your choices match?
The idea of OKC was to help people meet-and-greet others not judging by others’ looks but intellectuality. Unlike most hookup apps out there, here you will get to find potential match(s) according to your interests, passions, hobbies, goals and outlooks of life.
No more being allured by digital (read “edited”) pictures of others and then rejecting him/her as your choices do not match. The algorithms are created so than you know how much match is found with the person and how much “enmity” (Not literally, it is more depicted for the unmatched choices).
What Is So Special About OKC?
From casual flings to serious relationships, casual dating to sexual encounters –the app gives an opportunity for every type of relationship. Do you want to know more about it? Keep reading below –
- During the 2014 end, OkCupid introduced bold and non-traditional profile options by allowing sexuality and gender identity to be expressed by LGBT community. The website introduced options for homosexuals, asexual, bisexual, sapiosexual, pansexual and transgender. Wow.
- It is free to download and use –it will always be. However money buys some advance features and if you wish to squeeze out some more fun of dating, you can try he basic or premium features. We will discuss about it afterwards.
- The perky interface is neither too gaudy nor too simple. The thing you will love? The pop-up responses like “Go ahead and brag a little champ” will make the browsing experience cool as ever.
- According to higher to lower percentages, your dating suggestions will be shown. However, The QuickMatch will help you reduce the browsing time by showing you the profiles with match percentage.
- You can ping a user if you like his/her profile, no matter whether the percentage of match is high or low. On the other hand, if you do not like some profile, you can always “dislike” so that the messages are not shown to you.
- If you find someone’s behavior unacceptable or simply do not want to see that profile, there is the “Block” option.
Want more features? Try Paid Version
Add maximum six pictures, answer simple to kinky questions, browse, like or dislike profiles, interact through texts and make a date-out plan –the free version is totally cool. But with a bit investment, the advanced features come with two plans –
A-List Basic –The price ranges from $9.95 per month, $7.95 per month for 3 months subscription and $4.95 per month for 6 months subscription. The features –
- Filter searches according to preferences of profile rating, body type, gender etc.
- Ad free browsing
- Check whether the messages are read
- See the people who have liked a specific profile without having any mutual friends.
A-List Premium –The price ranges from $24.90 per month, $22.90 per month for 3 month subscription and $19.90 for 6 month subscription. Apart from the features of A-List Basic, you will enjoy features like –
- Get discovered faster
- See other people’s answers to the public questions.
- One free profile boost in peak hours.
You can also purchase Boosts to increase your popularity among ocean of users and to get response quickly from the profiles you like. The Boosts come at $2 for one, $1.9 for five and $1.70 for five.
Other A – List benefits are unlimited photo exchange, storing up to 500 messages, higher priority of messages by displaying of messages on the top right corner of user inbox and introduction of incognito mode where you can check out profiles without letting them know unless you wish to reveal your identity to them.
Set Up Profile and Start Interacting
So far you must have learnt about the app, so now it is time to download OkCupid. Apart from web interface, you can download it for iOS as well as Android OS from the developer OkCupid.com. Check out the setup process below –
- Install and launch OkCupid
- Sync your Facebook account or sign up with email id.
- Fill in your name, gender preference and date of birth
- Add picture (maximum 6 allowed in free version)
- Fill in the “About me” section. Try to put as compact information as you can with a quirky tone. Remember, you are joining a dating app!
- Answer in “Yes” or “No” for 15 MCQs. You can choose not to fill or fill later. It is only to get preference outlook to suggest people.
- Now you will be shown some singles in and around your area. Choose three among them to let the algorithm determine your “type”.
All Set. Now How It Works?
As mentioned earlier, even if you are a free user, you can start discovering the people around you, check whether they are online, like them and also ping them for further interaction by selecting the users’ profile. The percentage on the profile is the plus point to know how much your choices match.
If you are lazy about aimless discovering, then check out “Discovery” section that lets you browse according to shared interests and match percentage. Like or Dislike a profile –they will be notified immediately if you “like”, considering the fact that you haven’t chosen to be invisible from the settings option.
On the other hand, you can reciprocate to the messages sent by someone or if you do not find him/her interesting, then you can “dislike” so that no further messages from their side appear in your notification.
The messages sent by someone initially will appear on the top corner of his/her profile, so that you can get an idea of the person, before replying or rejecting. There is also the Instagram Snapshots area where you can explore their insta profile and the Q&A area where you will see the answers given by other users.
Why Use OkCupid –Is It Worth It?
Dating apps are fun and there are many sites. But why use OkCupid, here is why –
- If you are not sure about sharing your identity, then there is anonymous way of protecting personal information and interact with others.
- No need to use personal community service for interacting with others, the app offers in-site chatting system to maintain safe communication.
- With A-List subscription, you can change the existing username to remain anonymous at any point of time.
- The interaction between you and other users are analyzed by OkCupid with statistical observation.
- The flawless algorithm is the USP of OKC that filters profiles according to preferences. Moreover, you can easily make filter choices to make sure no creepy stalker bothers you but only those whom you choose.
- About 50 questions are presented to you, which you can answer as aptly as you can so that the in-built algorithm makes sure the perfect matches are suggested to you. The answers will determine your “type” and ensure that you get suggestions according to that type. You can also skip the questions with which you feel uncomfortable.
Why Not To Use OkCupid?
Yes, everything is not everyone and every app has some drawbacks too. Here is why –
- Being free of cost and coming with various choices for free, OKC attract literally anyone who can create an account and can answer the random as well as worthless questions to start with.
- There are many spam users with fake information and pictures, most of which act lewd –it creates the overall experience unpleasant, especially if you decide a real-time date with such people.
- Abuses can be hurled for no reason at all mostly at female users and those from LGBT community.
- Many users use it as a sex-app and send such requests to the women, thereby making them vulnerable and put off their interest in earnest dating.
- In case people quit using the site without deleting profiles, other users trying to contact them find it difficult to understand whether they are ignoring or are not active.
Don’t Like OKC? There Are Others
Be it a casual hookup or cyber sex, the BeNaughty website lets single, married and committed people to enjoy mature dating with sexual undertone in every 12 hours with multiple members.
The Zoosk is another simple and straightforward dating app that is free from excessive notifications and newsfeed updates. Daily mutual match suggestions will be provided to you and your picture is all that counts here.
The non-judgmental and unrestrictive hookup app AdultFriendFinder helps in meeting people in person, have cyber sex and also help in sexual expression through blogs, profiles and webcams.
Pros and Cons
While the free browsing helps interacting with anyone, to attain full functionality, you have to pay.
The interface is simple yet vibrant, which helps browsing easy. There is also not much cluttering of ads.
The app does not have much selection in small areas with less population. Again in congested urban areas, the app is being accessed by anyone and everyone, many of whom are spam users, making the overall experience unbearable for others.
While there are extensive search options for searching the perfect person, the algorithm system is not up-to-the-mark, so the matching system is not fully reliable.
The questionnaire is sometimes too bogus, which does not help in determining the compatible partner.
Final Verdict
So, finally it can be said that this is a balanced site where both the users looking for casual dates and serious relationships can be benefitted. Being open to any sexual orientation, the app lets everyone search people with whom their choices and preferences match.
However, you should be beware while replying to anyone and check out their instagram snapshot and bio thoroughly.
Also Read –
- How is OkCupid Different from Tinder?
- How to Get Laid on OkCupid?
- 8 Best Transgender Dating Sites & Apps
- Top 6 – No Email Needed Dating Sites
- Xmatch Review: Is This Dating Site Worth Trying in 2024? - April 1, 2024
- 7 Best Hookup Apps & Sites in San Francisco: 2024’s Ultimate Guide - March 8, 2024
- GetItOn Review: What to Expect from This Unique Adult Dating Site - February 24, 2024
