Is Happn Worth It for Men?

It is worth a free test for a man whose week takes him through busy places, and it is a poor fit for one who mostly stays home. happn does not show you a stack of strangers from across the city. It shows you people whose paths crossed yours, so the size of your pool, and your matches, depend on how much ground your day covers. The app does not publish how many active users are near you, so a two-week test is the only honest answer.

On most dating apps you are handed a queue of people in your area and asked to decide on each. On happn, your main page is built from people you crossed paths with, meaning people within a short radius of you at some point in your day.

You can like someone in secret, so she only learns of it if she likes you back. You can send a SuperCrush, which sends her a notification. When two people like each other, happn calls it a Crush, and you can start talking.

The app keeps recording crossings with the phone in your pocket and the app closed, as long as location is switched on for it.

The feature that makes happn useful is also its limit.

A man who walks to a gym, eats out and takes a train crosses a lot of people. A man who works from home and orders in sees the same short list for weeks. Nothing is wrong with the app in the second case. The pool is simply thin because the day is.

There is one more upside. A woman who crossed your path lives or works near where you spend time, which makes a first date easy to arrange. a dating coach's rules for dates from apps put weight on meeting close to home, and happn gives you that almost by default.

happn caps how many likes you can send in a day, says it does this to improve the quality of interactions, and lets you carry on the next day. A subscription removes the cap.

For most men the cap is a small cost. If you keep hitting it, you are probably liking too many people, since each like should be for a woman you would honestly like to meet. a dating coach's view of apps is that a man who likes everyone gets treated as less attractive and shown worse options, so a daily cap pushes you the right way.

Read what the paid tier offers on the day you buy, and do not pay until the free version has shown you women worth writing to.

That is the real question, and the app will not answer it from a chart. You answer it by looking.

Use it for two weeks, with location on and the app closed most of the time, and go about your normal week. Then open the page and count. How many women you crossed paths with look like people you would like to meet? How many did you like? How many liked you back?

If your main page fills with people from far away rather than people you crossed, that is happn topping up a thin pool. You can check any woman's page for a map at the end. If there is one, you crossed paths. If not, she is someone the app added from further out.

A few things raise your odds.

• Photos matter on happn like everywhere. A clear, recent photo of your face in daylight, with nobody else in the frame, is the lead.
• You can get your account certified for a black badge, which tells women your photos are really you. happn says the check is free, and it is worth doing.
• Write to a woman soon after a crossing. You share a neighborhood, a coffee shop or a commute, and that beats a comment on a photo as a first line.

Then do the same thing you would do on any app. Ask a question she can answer in a sentence, and move to a plan in a few messages. A coffee near where you both pass through is an easy yes.

Skip happn if you rarely leave your house or your office. The app rewards movement, and a quiet routine gives it nothing to work with.

Skip it too if your local feed stays empty after two weeks of normal days. A thin pool is not something a subscription can fix. Run a second app instead, give both the same photos and the same written lines, and keep the one that produces conversations.

Happn is a good supplement for a man who gets around, and a bad bet for a man who does not. Try it free, count what you see, and decide on your own numbers. If crossings turn into conversations and conversations into coffees, it is earning its place on your phone.