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Coffee Meets Bagel
Coffee Meets Bagel is the free dating app with a goal to ‘brew meaningful connections and bake curated matches.’ The app was first launched in 2012 by three sisters who were disappointed with the range of dating apps and sites on the market. The aim was to reach out to those who found dating challenging due to their busy schedules and women who desired more control on dating sites. The app takes a different approach to dating, encouraging users to meet in real life and ditch the computer screen!
Facts and Statistics
Age – 25 – 34 years
Gender – 60% women, 40% men
Users -7 million
Matches – 50 million
70% of users are looking for a serious relationship
The sign-up process is extremely quick and easy with Coffee Meets Bagel as the app is based through the users Facebook profile. This means that the app pulls information such as age and location via Facebook, eliminating a long signup process. Your Coffee Meets Bagel profile pictures can also be taken from Facebook and users can display up to 9 pictures. Additionally, users are encouraged to complete small statements about themselves that will be displayed on their profile such as ‘I like…’ and ‘I appreciate when my date…’ This will be great for anyone that struggles with writing their own bio! One of the other special features of this app is that 3 ice breaker questions can be added to your profile during the sign-up process, catching the eye of your potential matches by adding to the appeal of your profile.
Matches based on Facebook friends – Coffee meets Bagel uses an interesting algorithm which attempts to connect users who have at least one mutual friend on Facebook, which is why you are requested to sign up via your Facebook profile.
24-hour time limit – Coffee meets Bagel model is based on encouraging matches to ditch the phones and meet up in real life for dates. This is why they have strict time limits on matching and chatting. Once a potential match appears on your page, you only have 24 hours to like or pass the profile. Once a match is made, the chat stays online for only 8 days before it deletes. The whole aim of this to challenge the current dating culture where people are messaging for long periods of time without ever meeting.
Icebreaker Questions – When initially signing up, users have the option to add 3 ice breaker questions to their profile. This helps matches to skip the small talk and make meaningful conversation. This also takes the fear out of not knowing what to message someone first! The conversation should be flowing in no time!
The matching process on CMB is unique to other apps as matches are curated through Facebook friends. CMB tries to find at least one mutual friend amongst matches, however this could become awkward as you could come across a lot of people you already know!
There are two different ways users can find matches – either by the ‘Suggested’ or ‘Discover’ page. The Suggested page contains only the users CMB think you are most compatible with, but these matches are only based on 5 criteria – age, height, distance, ethnicity and religion. The Discover page allows you access to more potential matches and even shows you the accounts that have already liked you! In the Discover page you have the chance to ‘Give’ or ‘Take’ profiles. If you choose to ‘Take’ a profile you then match with them whilst the ‘Give’ option allows you to send a profile to a friend who might like that user.
CMB gives you new matches every day at noon. Men can receive up to 21 Bagels (matches) every day whilst the women are presented with the bagels that have already liked them. This might seem like a small number of matches compared to other popular apps; however, the goal is to eliminate the effort of swiping through matches by giving only the highest quality matches. With each Suggested match you have 3 options (Pass, Like or Comment) but you only have 24 hours to use one or the match is gone! Similarly, you only have 24 hours to strike up a conversation or you lose your Bagel.
In terms of privacy, each and every profile is personally checked by a member of staff for authentication. Users are also able to flag accounts that appear suspicious whilst using the app and these are then reviewed in detail by the CMB staff. Recently, they introduced a model which detects scammers on the site! If you are worried that linking your Facebook account will jeopardise your privacy, fear not! CMB will never access your account, post anything on your account or publicly link your Facebook profile to your CMB account.
Coffee meets Bagel is a unique app that encourages users to leave behind their screens and meet up with their matches, making it a great app if you are ready to start meeting other singletons in real life. This is made possible by only allowing matches 8 days of communication via the app before the match deletes.
Matches can tend to be limited as matches are made based on only 5 criteria which are age, height, distance, ethnicity and religion. As well a this, you men only receive up to 21 matches every day. However, users can also use the ‘Discover’ feature as a means of finding other potential matches.
Overall, the app takes a creative turn to dating and you get a lot of great features for free! We recommend combining Coffee Meets Bagel with another quality free dating app such as Luxy or Prospr to gain even more potential matches!
Submitted by Dating Apps Free author Taylor
