Coffee Meets Bagel Dating App Review: Take a Bite or Pass it on?

Using dating apps can be a little daunting for those who are newly single or if you’ve just experienced one too many bad blind dates.The choice of dating apps nowadays is endless. Trying to find an app that isn’t expensive or tricky to use can be a tiring process. Fortunately, Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app that claims to solve all these problems. It also has a cute and catchy name (who doesn’t like bagels?) Here’s the basic principle around the app: every day at noon members receive a match with similar interests known as a ‘bagel’.

You can choose to like your bagel or if they don’t seem quite right then you can pass them on. The app is predominantly for young people looking for a real relationship with someone who shares common interests, is geographically close and mutually attractive. It uses Facebook to connect you with friends of friends. Which is making it more likely that you’ll achieve these three aims and less likely that you’ll be in contact with strangers with fake profiles. Sounds hassle-free, doesn’t it? Let’s take a look at the details in the Coffee Meets Bagel dating app review below.

Coffee Meets Bagel Dating App Review: The Stats

The Coffee Meets Bagel App was started up in 2012 by three sisters living in New York. After trying multiple dating sites, they found themselves wondering “Where are all the good guys?” This question plagues many young professionals who have everything going for them but are yet to find true love (or at least a decent coffee date). The sisters consequently designed an app that would not only “spice up your lunch break” but also follow 3 basic principles: 1.complete privacy 2.allow your friends to be conduits for your dates, and 3.eliminate awkwardness from dating.

The app claims to have generated more than 1 million dates and connects up to 500 couples a week with its simple design. Widely available throughout the US as well as London, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Sydney, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Dubai, Bangalore and Delhi, it is currently only in English. Available to download on your iPhone or Android appliances with iOS 8.0 or later, Coffee Meets Bagel advertises itself as being a free dating app.

Coffee Meets Bagel Dating App Review: What it Packs

In essence, the Coffee Meets Bagel app focuses on creating long-term relationships. You don’t have to sift through hundreds of profiles or be bombarded by creepy messages. Instead, once a day a message will pop up from the app with your ‘bagel’. You’ll have 24 hours to decide to take a bite or pass it on. If you choose to ‘like’ your match ,and providing they ‘like’ you back, a chat box is then opened. This will only be open for a few days so you have a limited amount of time to chat with your match and decide whether you want to meet in person. Not everyone will be happy with their daily match. If this is the case pass on your bagel and wait for the next one.

Alternatively you can visit the ‘Give and Take’ section and ‘buy’ new matches using ‘beans’, the apps currency. This feature allows you to look through potential matches and choose who you would like to contact yourself instead of the app allocating you a match. You can also play match-maker. You can pass on your bagels to friends. Or have detailed profile options so you can advertise anything and everything to prospective suitors. Once you are set up in a chat room with your accepted bagel, the app provides you with icebreakers so you don’t end up asking dull questions. Coffee Meets Bagel aims to cut to the chase and get you set up on a face-to-face date ASAP.

Coffee Meets Bagel Dating App Review: The Last Word

This app may seem like the ideal tool for newbies to online dating. Free to use, completely private AND with a positive success rate- what’s not to like? Unfortunately there are a few catches and other Coffee Meets Bagel dating app review have been mixed. Nevertheless, the app has been featured in many “Best Dating App” articles and could be the way forward for online dating among young professionals. Overall, I would recommend it for its stress-free concept. It definitely has the potential to successfully match you to like-minded individuals.

Coffee Meets Bagel Dating App Review: Rating

When I first downloaded the app, I was haunted by visions of friends being able to see my account activity. But I was swiftly reassured by the app that it values privacy and will NEVER publish anything on Facebook. The claim that it is a free app was similarly a sore subject. While it is free to download and to use the basic function of receiving one bagel per day, obtaining beans to buy further matches is not. These beans can be collected (albeit very slowly) by inviting friends to the app/sharing things to social media. You can purchase them on the app for a rather steep price.

There are also minor issues with the picture editor. It either doesn’t work or crashes when you try to use it. You are also not guaranteed a bagel everyday. It depends on the amount of matches available and how many people use the app in your location. This may not necessarily be a bad thing. Although receiving one match a day is far less daunting. Many dating apps, receiving one every few days may be more manageable for some users. Due to the minor problems with the profile tools and the slight catch of not all features being free, I would give this a 4 out of 5 rating. It is undoubtedly an easy app to use. You can’t help but feel a pang of anticipation and excitement when you receive your daily bagel notification!

Download from

App Store 4.5/5

Google Play 4/5