OkCupid
OkCupid was initially launched in 2004 and it really holds justice to those OG dating sites. Even to this date, the growth in the number of users is notable, and there is no lack of profiles to look through. There is still a fair share of daily active users. With many of OkCupid's contacting features, which we will discuss in this article, it is really easy and takes a little to no time to find somebody to talk with, flirt, or even date! The site has gone through many changes and redesigns, but most notable is the change to the rules of their messaging system. Basically, anybody can send messages to anybody, but you can only see and reply to the messages of the user that you're matched with.
The member base itself is very diverse, and there are people from many different areas of life. There is a good number of users in every age range, but the biggest percentage is the user base between 25 and 35 years. Most of them are young professionals who are looking to see if the app can get them a suitable date, and when compared to other similar apps, the member's response percentage is very high on OkCupid.
Earlier, during the initial launch, OkCupid was mostly known as a place for finding hookups and casual short-term dates. However, today, the situation is a little bit different with everybody having access to smartphones, and thus the larger numbers of older folks in there as well. Also, OkCupid requires you to specify what are you looking for within the site, be it a short term, long term date, casual hookups or friendship. This is one of the most useful features, as you could really narrow the members down to those who match your interests when it comes to the site's usage.
Getting Started
Signing up for an account on OkCupid is very straightforward, quick, and easy. You need to input some basic information, such as name, location, age, and e-mail address. However, if you have a Facebook profile, you can skip all of those and sign-in using an existing Facebook account. But that's not all. You are also asked to answer some questions about yourself, such as your hobbies, interests, sexual orientation, dating preferences, religious beliefs, etc. This will help OkCupid in deciding which members could be potentially compatible with you, and which will be appearing as suggested matches. There is also compatibility showed as a percentage with a suggested match, which is based on the answers that you provided during the initial questionnaire.
Profiles
Member profiles consist of user's photo gallery on the upper part of the page. Below that is a profile summary box which is written by the user. This serves as a short description that should include information which is not contained in initial questions that you answer upon registration. Most members don't write a too lengthy description, however, the field can't be empty, so there are a couple of sentences or keywords to highlight user's interests and describe them as best as possible.
Profiles can also choose to show some of the match questions that were answered upon registration so that you can get in touch easily and have an idea about who they are and what are they looking for within the site. The initial personality test determines the percentage which is shown below profiles of your suggested matches, and you can also see the questions that both of you have given the same answer to. Also, on the bottom, there are pictures of users who share similar interests, like a suggestion list so that you never run out of profiles to browse through.
How to get in touch
OkCupid's overall percentage of successful matches and connected members used to be a lot higher, but due to the changes of the messaging system, which now doesn't allow you to see messages unless you are matched with that user, that number is a bit lower than it used to be. However, you can still message any user, and hope for the best. According to the information provided by the site designers, this is done in order to reduce the number of unwanted and inappropriate messages. While it actually discourages those creeps from messaging everybody and sending inappropriate content, it also cuts down the frequency of decent and genuine users getting matches and starting a conversation with a potential match. However, their matchmaking is still a great way to get in touch, as the algorithm is constantly updated with the latest features to make sure that you are always presented with the people of the highest percentage to be a great fit with you. Also, you can input additional filters when performing the search, such as setting age range and similar parameters, and your last search options will always be saved so that you don't have to input them again. Talk about quality of life things!
OkCupid's primary matching system is called Double Take. It's a roulette-like matching system, where you are presented with potential matches one by one, and you can just swipe left or right, pretty much identical to Tinder's matching system. However, in a smartphone app, if you like a user who has very high match percentage with you, your are instantly prompted to send them a message and notify them that you are really interested in them. But you can always choose to not do so if you don't feel like it, and the game will continue as it is. There is also a OkCupid blog that publishes many useful tips that help you get the maximum out of the app, as well as some general dating life tips, in case you lived under the rock for the past 10 years or so! But it's way easier to search for some dating-related articles in our blog if you feel like you don't know what to do!
Application and usabillity
OkCupid's smartphone app is really great, and it's the perfect fit for the folks who want to get in touch on the go, or while visiting another city. While it offers no additional features when compared to the website, the app's interface design and usability really stand out from the pack. Profiles have much more engaging and clearer layout, while the dashboard is beautifully organized in tabs so that you don't miss on anything that could be of interest to you. Apart from everything much more simplified and accessible, it also allows you to turn on notifications, which will tell you if there is anything new happening with your profile, without you having to check it manually.
The only downside is that free users have a limited number of likes to spend on a daily basis. However, thanks to the match percentage feature and everybody's profile containing the information about what are they looking for on the site, you can always sort out more interesting members and save your likes, since you won't be wasting them on people whose interests are not relevant to yours. While the premium membership could be a bit costly for some of the users, depending on the which plan they chose, it really comes with many quality perks and improvements. Ranging from $4-10 a month, depending on the plan that you choose, the premium subscription will allow you to remove those annoying adds from the smartphone app, see who liked you so that you know how are you doing in terms of success on the site, and it allows you to have higher message priority while trying to get in touch, meaning that your messages would appear first in receiver's inbox. There are two kinds of premium subscription, the A-List basic, and the A-List premium. The only difference from mentioned perks is that the A-List premium has some additional features, but they can sometimes be sort of redundant, in a sense that the basic premium subscription will get the job done in almost every case. OkCupid also offers a paid boost service, which will highlight your profile for 30 minutes and you will be exposed to the more users through the matchmaking system. Also, subscriptions are renewed automatically, until you decide to cancel it manually through your account settings.
See Also
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