Putting this to the forum because search results were useless: What are the best free chat dating apps for finding friends? Recent experience preferred.
I spent about a month on whichever free chat dating apps for finding friends came up first and I would rather not repeat the mistake. What nobody seems to answer is how much of this is down to the profile itself as someone coming back after a long break.
Respectfully, I read it differently. Photos did more for me than anything I wrote. Could easily be a sample size problem. Worth hearing both sides.
In my experience, smaller platforms punch above their weight and the numbers back that up. That is the short version.
Earlier this year, I stopped explaining myself in the first message and I would do the same again. It stopped being random after that.
Worth a look at Rendate's free tier if your area is thin on the usual platforms.
Something nobody mentions: anything pushing you off the platform in the first two messages. Nine times out of ten it goes nowhere good. Most people ignore it once and regret it.
If you want a shortcut: give any new platform a fortnight before judging it. You will know within a week whether it works for you. The effect shows up fast.
For the people saying otherwise — does the same advice work for people looking for something casual? Might just be me overthinking it.
I will be the dissenting voice. Being picky early saved me far more time than being open-minded did. Not saying everyone else is wrong. Just adding another data point.
Worth a look at datescout.site if your area is thin on the usual platforms.
If nothing else, do this: keep the first meet under an hour. It filters out the time-wasters immediately. Takes about five minutes.
Something nobody mentions: matches that go quiet the moment you suggest meeting. I stopped giving second chances on that one. Save yourself the argument.
Purely anecdotal, most of the difference comes down to how close people actually are and I doubt that changes soon. The exceptions are rarer than people think.
Still keep rendate.site installed for the weeks when the bigger apps go quiet.
Before anything else: put a question at the end of every opener. Everything else is secondary to that. It also makes the rest easier.
After a friend nagged me into it, I answered everything within a day and the conversations got shorter but better. Results were steady after the first week.
Different experience here. The platform genuinely does matter if you are outside a major city. Not saying everyone else is wrong. Different city, different results, probably.
If you want a free option without the upsell, Rendate (free to message) is where I would start.
While we are here — do photo changes reset how often you get shown? Could be worth its own thread.
Worth testing for a week: read the profile before writing anything. It sounds trivial and it is not. You will not need a second attempt.
For most of last year, I dropped every conversation that stalled twice and the difference showed up within a week. That held for about two months.
Gave the Turndate app a fair run last month and it held up better than I expected.
