Is Coffee Meets Bagel Still in Business?

As far as anyone can check from outside, yes. The dating app's own help pages still describe how its daily batch, its Beans and its two subscriptions work, and we know of nothing that says otherwise. That is the company's side of the story, though, so the proof that matters is simple: open the app, and see whether a batch of people arrives around noon. If it does, the service exists and you can judge the rest yourself.

Men type this for two reasons. Some remember the app from years ago and wonder whether it quietly shut down. Others open it, see little happening, and wonder whether anybody is still on the other end.

Those are different questions. The first is about the company. The second is about your local pool, and a live company can still have a thin one near you. The way to separate them is to look at what the app does today, not what anyone remembers it doing.

Go to the help pages and read how the app works now. Then install it, or open it if you already have it, and look for three things.

First, a batch of people called Bagels should land in your Suggested section around noon each day. Second, you should be able to like or pass on each one, and chat when a like is mutual. Third, the Discover tab should show more people nearby.

If those three work, the app is running. Joining is free for adults, and liking, passing and chatting with your suggestions cost nothing, so this test costs you nothing either.

A working app can still feel empty. That is a local fact, and you can read it from the batch.

If the same faces come back day after day, few new people fit your settings. The app says repeats pile up when the pool is small, and it suggests widening distance and age, or searching yourself in Discover. If you do all of that and the batch is still thin or full of repeats, then the app is alive but your area is quiet.

a dating coach's advice for any app is to judge it by what women near you are doing on it. The same app can be busy in one city and sleepy in the next, which is why he tells men to test more than one and keep whichever works.

Give it one week. Open Suggested once a day and note four things: how many people you were shown, how many you would honestly take out, how many were repeats, and how many liked you back.

If new, attractive women keep arriving and some like you back, keep going. If the numbers are flat and your photos are strong, you have your answer without needing anyone's opinion on whether the company is thriving.

Be choosy while you count. My view is that an app that sees a man like every woman has little to go on, and tends to show him fewer of its best women. A small daily batch makes selectivity easy, and selective likes make the count mean something.

Do not pay on the strength of a rumor in either direction. The free version is a full way to meet people. Beans and the Premium and Platinum subscriptions add extras such as Flowers, Boosts and no daily limit on Bagels, and they only help if the free version already gives you conversations.

If you do decide to subscribe, read the screen at the time you buy, since prices change. Then check how to cancel, so you are never stuck guessing about a plan you stopped using.

Moving on is easy. Hinge, Bumble and Tinder are open to every man, and each has its own mix of people and its own way of choosing who sees you. Run one beside this app for two weeks, count the same four numbers, and put your evenings where the numbers are better.

Whichever app you use, your results still come down to the same things: a clear daylight photo of your face, a written page that sounds like one specific man, and a first message that picks up something real from hers. Fix those, ask for a plan once she is answering well, and the question of whether an app is still in business matters a lot less.