You can now create a shareable dating resume so anyone can apply to date you
Online dating can at times feel like job-hunting. You scroll through endless profiles searching for a suitable candidate. You go through a series of interviews to weed out the ones who aren't the right fit.
Whether you wanted it or not, the world of online dating just went one step further with the launch of a site and app that allows people to submit applications to date people.
Apply To Date lets hopeful daters build a shareable webpage that's a little bit like a dating resume. The webpage has its own shareable URL that daters can add to their tweets, Snapchat stories, and Instagram bios.
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Its founder and developer, Lucy Guo, told Mashable the idea for the site and the app was born out of frustration from Tinder, OkCupid, Bumble, and Raya. "Tinder felt too shallow with emphasis only on photos. OkCupid was information overload," says Guo.
"I personally was looking for a date to a holiday party and thought it'd be fun to look via my own network and filter applicants on Tinder," Guo, who's based in San Francisco, CA, continued.
She created a "Be My Date" webpage for herself and received 250 applications, some of whom were "secret admirers in middle school," others were former colleagues, or even complete strangers.
"A huge differentiating factor was that it was a public online page anyone could see and share," she says. Creating this site for herself gave Guo an idea to build a kind of "actionable about.me" that other people could use as well.
Guo built Apply To Date, which went live three weeks ago, which she says lies somewhere in the "in-between of dating apps" and "your own game of The Bachelor(ette)."
While this all sounds like a fun, novel concept to shake things up in the dating world, one particular feature on Apply To Date could cause daters a bit of a headache. Daters' contact details are automatically shared the moment they match with an appropriate candidate.
How does it work?
Each profile follows the same format. At the top of the page, there's a button that allows people to ask you out. There's an introduction, followed by more background, a chance to list what you're looking for, as well as what you're not looking for. At the top and bottom of the page photos from your Facebook or Instagram will be shown, and links to your social media accounts will be listed.
So, how many applications can people expect to receive? Guo says it depends entirely on how actively you promote your own profile.
"We launched three weeks ago and it ranges from 0 to 160, with the ones actively promoting and putting it in their bios are receiving between 10 and 50," she says. Apply To Date's homepage now features a discovery section so you can peruse featured profiles.
"We offer just enough information, prevent catfishing by forcing you to attach social profiles," she says. But, there's one thing that security-conscious daters might not like—Apply To Date automatically shares your contact details when you match with someone.
A cause for concern?
"We also skip the bullshit -- contact information is automatically exchanged when you match, so there's more intent," Guo explains. Skipping BS is one thing, but this feature could be a cause for concern for daters worried about harassment.
The fact that page owners are forced to attach links to their social profiles could cause some users worry. And, given the recent alarming Tindstagramming trend—when Tinder users receive Instagram DMs from people they swiped left on—it's easy to see why anyone would be hesitant about linking social media accounts to any form of dating account.
Guo says that the owner of the page chooses which preferred contact information they wish to exchange, and they can also choose how much information is put out there. But, these measures might not be enough to allay some daters' concerns.
Get Safe Online (GSO)—a resource that provides advice on protecting yourself from online abuse and fraud—strongly advises against sharing any contact information in your profile or "initial communications" with a match. "Take things slowly and share more information when you feel comfortable doing so. It is impossible to get back information once you have given it away," GSO advises.
Emily Jones—who works in business development at Boom Supersonic—has been using Apply To Date for the past few weeks and hasn't encountered any issues.
"I think the idea you get their phone number immediately cuts out a huge process of transition between on the app to personal phone due to notifications it’s just not as direct as getting their number immediately," she says. Jones says she's been on a few dates from Apply To Date, but most of them have been "networking type dates," and not "romantic formal dates."
Perhaps the world of dating isn't quite ready for a formal application process?
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
