Zoosk Dating App Review

Zoosk Dating App Review – What you need to know

At first glance, Zoosk’s dating app looks to be created for singles looking for lasting love. Their mission they say is to help people lead ‘a fulfilling love life’; the Zoosk logo has a middle ‘O’ topped by a heart which brings to mind an engagement ring. Once you’ve signed up, however, it’s less clear who Zoosk is aimed at. There seems to be a real mix of people looking for something lasting, and people looking for a bit of fun. Zoosk promises us that it will help singles ‘Date Smarter’ with its Behavioural Matchmaking Technology- a kind of intelligent technology which is supposed to learn from members’ actions in real-time, which reminds me of OKCupid.

I was able to sign up for the app reasonably quickly, free of charge. However, without paying for a subscription, it didn’t feel worth my time to do much beyond have a quick cycle through the singles suggested to me.

Zoosk Dating App Review – The Stats

Zoosk has been around since 2007, as a Facebook app. The free Zoosk Dating App became available in early 2010 on the Apple store, with the Android app following shortly after. No Windows app is available, but perhaps that’s unsurprising due to low demand. As of March 2015, they boasted 33 million members worldwide; their site tells us it’s now closer to 35 million, although it didn’t show us when that was counted. Zoosk has been translated into 25 languages and is available in 80 countries. There seemed to be no shortage of singles for me to look at in the UK, but the majority of the success stories featured on the site seem to be based in the US.

The app defaults your age preference to the ages 21-51 initially, so the net is cast quite wide, although this can be changed. From the singles I looked at on the broader age range, I’d say the very slight majority were in their 30’s, although there didn’t seem to be a hugely obvious average age. It’s interesting to note that the sign-up options for both genders offer you the choice of looking for either the same or opposite sex, but not of looking for both.

It’s free to set up an account, but if you want to do anything worthwhile, then it’s all about the money. It’s not possible to interact with anyone you like the look of, much less write a Zoosk Dating App Review, without first coughing up some cold hard cash. You can sign up for a subscription plan for a £25 one-off fee, £14.99 per month for three months, or £9.99 per month for a six-month commitment. Confusingly, you can also then buy ‘Zoosk Coins’ to do things like boost your profile or send gifts. The coin packs start at £14.99, and go up to a whopping £74.94!

Zoosk Dating App Review – What it packs

The app features a Carousel Mode, where you can click ‘Yes/ No/ Maybe’ based only on user’s profile photo. You can’t see anything else about them, but this is how Zoosk learns about your preferences to suggest matches for you. You can view singles by who’s online at the same time as you, who’s viewed you, and Smartpicks -the people who Zoosk think you’ll hit it off with. There’s also a standard search function, which I found the best way find out more information about the person.

The app allows you to send gifts to people using your Zoosk coins; the gifts are cartoon pictures of cutesy things like teddies, kisses, drinks and so on (think early Facebook, and you’ll know what I mean). Coins can also be used to ‘boost’ your profile and get you noticed. The ‘Wink’ feature has been replaced by ‘Like’ and ‘Smile’ buttons.

I linked my account to my Facebook for the Zoosk Dating App Review, and my interests were automatically populated based on my Facebook likes. This saved me a lot of brain power and leg work- I never quite know what to put for my interests! It’s an easy way to see whether a potential match has similar interests to you, so I liked this feature.

Zoosk Dating App Review – The last word

Honestly, this app for me was a mixture of good and bad. I loved that there are loads of safety features such as phone number and photo verification. It’s good to know that a stranger on the internet is (sort of) who they say they are. No more reverse image searches! Sadly, the subscription price was a real obstacle for me. On the one hand, if people are willing to invest in a good dating app, then they’re more likely to be serious about finding someone special. On the other hand, I wasn’t able to decide whether there was anyone I liked enough to justify me making a financial commitment.

Without paying, I wasn’t able to view messages other users had sent me, or accept any matches suggested by the app. Something small that bugged me was the viewing of a user’s photos. When I tried to swipe through the images, nothing happened. It turns out; you have to click on the ‘number of images’ icon and then swipe. Not a big problem, but an unnecessary step, and counter-intuitive in comparison to how most of us are used to viewing images on other popular apps.

Zoosk Dating App Review – The rating

I’m going to be generous and give Zoosk a 3/5 star rating. I found the different ways to search too confusing. The menus were sloppy; two similar cogs for two different setting menus- confusing much? I resented the idea of making users pay for a subscription and then again to get noticed with a boost. The only thing that got my heart racing was the ads that suddenly flashed up in Carousel Mode- you think you’ve accidentally clicked ‘Yes’ when you meant ‘No’ and panic ensues. I did like the easy way that interests were pulled from Facebook. Overall, my favourite thing was the ‘smile’ button- what better way to start something beautiful than with a smile?

Download Zoosk:

AppStore 3/5 stars

Google Play 4/5 stars