10 Apple Watch dating apps to supercharge your love life
Right from the onset, developers launched several apps designed specifically to utilize the Apple Watch to help you meet the love of your life. Can you imagine It won't be long before we're all invited to a couple's wedding who met via the Apple Watch. Who knows Maybe Siri will officiate.
Notable players in online dating--Tinder, OkCupid and Match.com (coincidentally, all three are owned by the same parent company)--were quickly to introduce a Watch app, but a few other lesser-known dating services have sprung up on the Watch since it first launched last month. Here are a few ways to tell which Apple Watch dating app is right for you.
For the online dating pro
If you already pay for a subscription to Match.com or have filled out that seemingly endless questionnaire on OkCupid, then your best bet is to use their Apple Watch apps as an extension of your online dating activity.
The OkCupid Watch app lets you scroll through photos of singles in your area to see if you're a match. On the Match Watch app, you can send someone a pre-populated message like "tell me about you" or "want to chat" that's intended to be more of a conversation starter than the standard "on my way" or "OK" messages that come preinstalled in your Watch's Messages app.
The Match app also gives you the option to stay logged in to your profile wherever you go, even if your Apple Watch is locked. That way, other users will view you as being "online" and more likely to send or answer your message.
For going out on a first date... tonight!
When it comes to dating, they say there's plenty of fish in the sea, so the fact that Tinder currently has over 30 million active users makes it the likeliest catch. Even though the Tinder Watch app is nothing special, it works great as an extension of the main iOS app with its winning formula for mobile speed dating.
If you get tired of swiping left and right, however, Clover cuts to the chase with its "on-demand" dating. No more messaging for days, instead Clover helps you make plans to meet for a date right away. With just two taps, the Clover Watch app finds you a nearby date and even suggests hotspots where the two of you should meet up.
For when you're already out and about
If you're already out at a singles bar but having trouble striking a conversation or making a connection, the following Watch apps might help create a spark.
Developed as a Watch-first app, WatchMe88 works like a radar that detects singles nearby. Just set certain preferences like your age, gender, sexual orientation, and location, and whenever you're within a certain distance of another user with preferences that match, both of your Apple Watch faces start to glow. It's kind of like the 21st century digital version of blushing. You can also send your match a message or a "wink" with a photo of your face before approaching them in real life.
For an even more adventurous dating experience, you can look forward to Close Encounter by 3nder and its blind dating approach (it's not live yet, but the developers recently described their idea on Medium). Close Encounter ditches the profile photos all together and focuses on "personality rather than on selfies." Users get notified whenever there's a match nearby, and then they can unlock their exact location and meet up. And for extra safety precautions, you can tap the screen three times and the app will send a distress signal to your closest friends. Yep, blind dates can be that tough.
For same-sex dating
A real-life version of a "gaydar," Jack'd claims to have created the first Apple Watch app for guys looking to meet guys. Users get notified in real time whenever their profile has been viewed by a user nearby. If they liked what they saw on your profile, you might be able to catch them before they leave the bar.
Similarly, UK-based PlanetRomeo has a Watch app that lets users browse through profiles, read messages and save guys to their favorites so they can be notified whenever they go online.
For being a little more picky
If you're overwhelmed by all the profiles on big sites like Match or OkCupid, perhaps you need to take a more focused approach to online dating. Every day at noon, Coffee Meets Bagel sends you just one potential match, selected specially for you because you share mutual interests and friends. You then have 24 hours to "like" or "pass." The Watch app tells you how much time you have left before you have to decide, so you won't ever miss out on a good match because you forgot to press "like."
If you are super selective and think you can mingle with the in-crowd, then you might want to try and register to The Inner Circle. Every member of this dating site is prescreened to "maintain the highest quality." Basically, they want rich, pretty people (or people who think they are). The Inner Circle Watch app will make you feel like you're never left out, no matter where you go.