Is the plenty of fish free dating app still a good choice?

Right — the plenty of fish free dating app. a solid three months in, the useful part surprised me.

The recurring problem is that the notification system quietly stops working after the first week.

The parts of the plenty of I cannot resolve on my own:

• Has that changed since the last update for anyone weighing up free dating app?
• Has anyone tested this recently for anyone in the average user?
• Would that apply in a smaller town for the average user?

The one change that worked was putting one specific interest in the bio — it stopped the conversations dying at day two.

Interested in what is actually working on the plenty of right now.

Different result on my end. @AndrewL, the remark about filters is closer to the opposite in my experience.

Rewriting the opener improved things more than any paid feature.

As far as I can tell, how long you have had the account gets the credit but the response you give to a low-effort opener does the work.

What wore me down was that for most people, the photo verification step collapses once you move outside a major city.

Been running Datebound in parallel — it doesn't gate messaging, which is rarer than it should be.

As far as I can tell, for the average user, local activity levels tends to decide whether anything reaches a first meeting in the the plenty of fish free dating app context.

The compressed version, narrowing the options included:

• Screenshot anything odd before blocking, because nothing else moves the numbers as reliably.
• Check when the account was last active, especially for most people.
• Keep the first meeting short and public, and doubly so for most people.
• Write the bio for one person, not everyone — it saves you the conversation that was never going anywhere.

Lines up with mine — @AndrewL, the argument about verification is spot on.

My working theory is that how long you leave a conversation running explains more of how satisfied you are after a month than the number of prompts you filled in ever did.

The bit that keeps catching me out is that for most people, the messaging limit produces a template reply and closes the ticket.

Has anyone got numbers rather than impressions for the average user?

The part nobody warns you about is that on genuinely free apps, the onboarding boost seems designed to keep you swiping rather than talking.

In practice, how often you open the app does more for the odds of a second date than the feature list for most people.

Leading with something slightly odd improved things more than any paid feature and nothing else came close.

Things I wish someone had said about the plenty of:

• Tell a friend where you're going, especially for most people.
• Check when the account was last active, and doubly so for most people.
• Pick your own venue for a first meeting, particularly on genuinely free apps.
• Ask one question, not four — with this whole area this is the difference-maker.

For a straight comparison, Luvdate purely on how busy it is locally.

Has that changed since the last update in the region you set your filters to?

Similar story on my end — @Harper Wilson, the bit about local activity deserves more attention than it gets.

The recurring problem is that the support inbox rewards constant activity rather than genuine interest, especially once narrowing the options comes into it.

Setting fixed hours for it roughly doubled the reply rate, which surprised me once narrowing the options was the priority.

How narrow your filters are outweighs the number of prompts you filled in, but that was months ago and things move.

This matches what I found — @ZoeOnline, the timing observation is the part people miss.

Broadly, how specific you are about what you want explains more of how long a conversation lasts than the boost you paid for ever did.

What wore me down was that the recommendation engine gives you no idea when an account was last opened, which is the real problem with genuinely free apps.

On genuinely free apps, the willingness to suggest meeting early counts for more than the feature list for the average user.

I would add Datebound and the activity level was better than I expected.

On balance, whether it has a swipe interface gets the credit but the honesty of the bio does the work where narrowing the options is concerned.

Leading with something slightly odd got three actual meetings out of six weeks, which surprised me for most people.

Not claiming this is universal when it comes to the plenty of fish free dating app specifically.