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We shouldn’t look for love the same way we shop for handbags. Endlessly swiping at faces might seem like a great way to spend your lunch break, but don’t expect to find your soul mate that way. This is the philosophy behind Coffee Meets Bagel. Limiting user choice on this app forces each person to more seriously consider each match. Created by three sisters during their time in New York City, Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) focuses on serving up match suggestions based on friends of your Facebook friends. This leads to a more tailored and personal approach to the usual dating app hook.
Profiles 7
Your profile is initially populated by your Facebook profile image and a few standard stats like name, age, current city, ethnicity, occupation, etc.
Coffee Meets Bagel’s three unique fields that follow those standard stats are where users are allowed to let their personality shine.
“I am…” can sound like a daunting prompt, but allows flexibility in how you wish to package yourself. “I like…” is a welcomed second prompt since people often confuse who they are with what they like. And the final prompt, “I appreciate when my date…” allows each user to paint a picture of a great night spent with a new special someone, or “Bagel” as CMB calls each match.
Coffee Meets Bagel Preview
Matching 8
Coffee Meets Bagel matches users with friends of Facebook friends. The hope is to have a pre-vetted shortlist of candidates that are one step removed from your current crop of friends.
What this means in practice can vary depending on each user. Some of my Facebook friends are topping out near the social network’s 5000 friend limit. This would mean that not all matches are intimately involved in your friends’ lives.
Of course, this also means that you might be going out with a casual friend’s bestie, which might make things awkward at parties down the road if you don’t hit it off.
In the end, the matches will ultimately be closer to the types of people you’d already be seeking. And Coffee Meets Bagel will let users see the mutual connection, for a price.
CMB’s platform uses Coffee Beans as the microtransaction currency du jour. You can earn Coffee Beans just by using the app, or by following CMB on Instagram, telling your friends and other marketing-friendly actions.
You can also buy Coffee Beans in bulk if you’re the impatient type and want to see which friend led to the match. But, since some of your friends might not be the closest to all of their Facebook friends, discussing your mutual connection might leave you both scratching your heads if you bring it up on the first date.
Filters 6
The manner in which you receive your matches is the biggest difference between Coffee Meets Bagel and other dating apps like Tinder or OKCupid. You get one match each day at noon by design. The reasoning is that CMB wants to make you excited for your lunch break and really consider each match served to you.
There is a marketplace of sorts where you can “Give & Take” matches. You can select from a predetermined list of 20 matches. You earn Coffee Beans if you give any of those matches to your friends. Or you can pay Coffee Beans when you take matches for yourself, which costs 385 Beans and sends your profile to that match for their review.
If you’re used to the endless supply of matches from other dating sites, you might find yourself growing impatient with this intentionally limited stream of matches.
Communication 9
If you’re like me, you might be a little wary of communicating with your matches. Most platforms offer an in-app communication method, but Coffee Meets Bagel ups the game by providing a temporary phone number to each user.
This might help calm your fears of being harassed by a match gone sour, or a troll, or a straight up stalker. Each temporary phone number expires after a month and you’ll receive a different one the instant you and each match both choose LIKE.
Value 7
There is an established microtransaction currency, but you can pretty easily sidestep paying anything for this service. AskMen even notes that only 3 to 5 percent of users actually make any in-app purchases. Again, this all comes down to the amount of patience you have, or the interest you have in finding out your mutual contact with each match.
But the true value in Coffee Meets Bagel may be that this dating app was built from the ground up by three sisters. This means that, in a sea of dating apps, this one in particular is built from a woman’s perspective.
The app’s intentionally slow drip of matches helps solve what a 2010 Northwestern University study called “the deluge problem.” Women in particular are more likely to find the constant barrage of pick up lines exhausting. CMB attacks this problem head-on, and from what I can see, they may have solved it!
