Thinking about trying the apps. I’m usually a proponent for meeting people IRL and dating that way, but that hasn’t provided any results so time to try something else. Haven’t been in an actual relationship my whole adult life, so meeting IRL isn’t working. What are your success stories from using the dating apps? I don’t want to horror stories, please.
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I met my partner on Bumble after years of dealing with Toronto’s abysmal dating scene (on apps and off). I never would have crossed paths with him otherwise as he is the antithesis of who I was trying to date. Turns out he was exactly what I needed.
met my now-husband on tinder! he just moved to the area, i was getting over an unrequited thing, we matched and started chatting and that was pretty much it. he moved in after 6-7 months and we’ve been together now for 7 years.
Give it shot! Met my current partner on Hinge and didn’t have any horror stories with any of the other guys I met before him. All perfectly nice men who just weren’t right for me. Take breaks when you need to.
I am yet to meet someone who’d become a partner, but my piece of success is that I actually met a lot of cool people through apps. One of them became a really close friend of mine and we’ve been friends for 7 years or so. Lots of other connections were more temporary but still pleasant in their own way.
Current partner, now fiancé. Mundane first date, sussing each other out, making sure we weren’t serial killers or scammers. Second date he took me skating and we photographed the stars with hot chocolate and babybels. He cooked me a steak dinner later that night, drove me home when I asked, kissed me goodnight and almost gave me a bloody nose out of nervousness. 4 years on we are engaged and getting married soon.
Honestly, 80% of my dates on the apps were either meh or enjoyable… even if they didn’t result in love. The 20% that were horror stories made it feel like it was overwhelmingly bad, but there were so many dates that were just not a good fit for me (or them) that i’ve definitely completely forgotten about. I met lots of great men I had no connection with.
One piece of advice I will give is that its NOT better to “give them a chance”. If you get the feeling they just want to bang you, or cure their boredom, or get over their ex, or they aren’t offering any meaningful conversation, just skip it. Don’t waste your time with the “give them a second chance” or “maybe i’m just judgy” bullshit. Your time is currency, spend it wisely.
I met my husband ten years ago on a free dating website. They had an app as well but I didn’t use it. This was right before “swiping” was a thing. I am a pretty detailed person so I had a long profile. He sent the first message and pretty much commented on every single fact about myself on my profile and complimented my dog in one of my pictures.
We chatted for a few days before he asked me for coffee. He made be homemade chocolate chip cookies on the first date because I mentioned they were my favorite. We got married in 2023 but will have been together for 10 years this coming November. We’ve lived together for 7 years.
Success stories…I knew what I finally wanted from a relationship after getting my heartbroken from a situationship from the app. I then used those learnings and new strategies to return to online dating (same app) 3 months later, when I finally met my husband. I used the Plenty of Fish app; that’s where I had more matches. It takes a lot of patience and discernment to swim through all the mud, but trust that there are rare ones that look for genuine connection.
Just take it one step at a time when you’re using these online apps; it’s okay to step away from it when it becomes too much.
I met my husband via Bumble back in 2018 (so I have ZERO clue how the online dating scene has changed since then). I thought he was handsome and had a nerdy charm about him beneath the jock exterior. Also, he said he loved to read but couldn’t spell for shit (not lying at all, he’s dyslexic). He got back to me immediately and we exchanged phone numbers–finding out we both had the same area code despite both living in a different state, turns out we grew up 10 minutes away from each other and knew a lot of the same people. We dated from the beginning of 2018, got engaged that late November, got married in late 2020 (thanks COVID), and now we have two kiddos (4M and 2F). He’s my best friend.
Also, his best friend met his wife (one my good friends) via Bumble as well. He was flying through the app and hooking up with different girls and then met her. He was extroverted, she was a total reserved, quiet girl. Somehow it worked. They got engaged a year after us in 2019, but also got pregnant around then too. They’ve been married since 2020 as well and have two boys 5M and 2M.
So there’s two success stories!
My dating app success story is deleting the apps and reclaiming my time and energy, lol. Success looks different to different people.
What’s your definition of success?
Met my partner on Facebook dating. I had gone on dates from Hinge and Bumble with no success. She saw we had mutual friends and lo and behold we also had mutual interests and values (from hanging out in similar circles).
She told me she loved me about a week ago.
I met my husband on Bumble! I’d been on and off the apps for a couple years and went on a TON of mediocre dates, and really only a handful of great ones that went anywhere. It was his first experience with dating apps. He’d been on there for a while but hadn’t gone on a single Bumble date before me. We immediately clicked and I asked him out on a date after talking for maybe 3 days. We actually moved in together after only 4 months of dating. Definitely one of those “when you know, you know” kind of things.
Actively dating via apps is a lot of work. A lot of time, communication, knowing/setting your boundaries and expectations, etc. Know what you want and don’t waste your time and energy on people whose lives don’t align with yours. Give important relevant information early on (your relationship expectations, whether you’re a single parent, travel frequently for work, etc) and communicate your dealbreakers upfront. It’ll really help with weeding out the mismatches and save you a ton of time and headaches.
Met my husband on Bumble. We matched when I was about to start residency and he was about to complete it (different specialty, same hospital). He pretty much immediately told me he was going to be staying on staff on a specific service at that same hospital, and that if there was any chance we should work together, then we shouldn’t talk. I said I was starting residency on that same service, so we didn’t message anything past that. I ran into him a couple of times in the hospital, but neither of us acknowledged the other (he told me later he thought I didn’t recognize him/had forgotten who he was). I completed my one month on the service where he was working and rotated to another related service. I ran into him again in line to talk to social work/case management for discharge planning – he saw I only had one patient on my list to discuss whereas he had nine and let me cut – but we didn’t say anything else to each other besides him telling me to get in line in front of him and me saying thank you. I messaged him later to thank him again and to let him know that there was now zero chance we would be working together and he immediately asked me out for brunch. (I wish I had paged him, because this story would be a lot funnier if I had.) We moved in together less than a year later, got engaged the next year and married shortly thereafter (~2 years after we met), and then I got pregnant. In ~4.5 years I went from “still a student, not sure if I’m looking for something serious, ambivalent about kids generally/ 0% interested in personally getting pregnant, absolutely no interest in owning property” to board-certified physician, married with a baby, living in a condo we co-own.
Prior to meeting my husband I had never been in a relationship longer than a year, and I had always been a “I need my own time” kind of a person – I thought that was just the way I was, not a function of the people I dated. But we’ve been together now for going on 7 years and I am still excited to see him every time he comes home/generally want to be around him as much as possible.
We had attended the same med school and overlapped/even lived in the same building for a couple of years but never ran into each other. Without having first matched on Bumble, I wouldn’t have followed up on that chance interaction with him in the hospital and he definitely would never have hit on me because of the potential power dynamic. I still consider us as meeting pretty organically, but that Bumble match gave me that info that I needed re: “he’s available” and “he’s interested” to actually take action.
I met my husband on Bumble several years ago.
To me, dating was a numbers game. So for me, the apps were a way to meet and screen many more people in a way shorter amount of time than I would be able to in person.
I would search for a year, then take a year off of dating, then get back on.
I don’t feel like I had any horror stories. The people I went on dates with were mostly fine, just not a match.
I found my husband after about a year and a half streak of dedicated looking, but I was looking hard. There were weeks where I had 3 different dates lined up. I paid for unlimited and swiped on literally thousands of profiles and probably went on dozens of first dates. I was firm in my boundaries and quick to reject people at the first warning signs so that I wouldn’t waste time.
It worked out for me. Found my absolute soul mate.
Met my sexting buddy on it six years ago. Life long friends now.
I got 3 year old situationship out of it, if that counts, lol
I’d taken a few months off after trying a few dates after a ltr break up.
I thought I wanted to just fuck around w multiple ppl. First dude that asked me on a date was cute but Im pretty sure I’d just grazed past his profile on other apps. But he contacted me on this one. We grab drinks after I finished up at my cook job. Hit it off. Took him to another bar, he met some of my friends and he was great w them. Took him home (which I wasn’t planning on). Made out til 6am. Lol.
6 months later we are still having fun!
Couldn’t have predicted this going so well and connecting with someone this much. It’s been absolutely lovely.
Met my soon to be ex husband on a dating app. We were together for almost 10 years. Used to be a success story.
I actually dated this one guy for 2 years off OkCupid and he was amazing, but our slight age gap I thought didn’t matter absolutely did lol. He’s still my friend and I adore him so, so much and is one of the best people I’ve ever met! Granted this was prepandemic, the world was much different then. But I’m forever grateful having met him.
Met my partner on Bumble back in January 2018. I swiped right on him the first day I was on it (we didn’t meet for weeks after). He was working second shift so we spent a lot of time texting.
First date lasted 4 hours of flowing, natural conversation. Second date was 8 hours.
I went on a lot of first dates with online dating – only one second date.