What Does the Zoosk App Look Like?

Zoosk is built around photos. Along the bottom of the app runs a menu with three places: your settings, Matches and Chats. Members appear either one at a time, in Carousel, or as a grid of squares, in Explore. A third screen, SmartPick, serves up a daily selection that you answer with a heart or an X.

The Zoosk app is free to download for iPhone, iPad and Android. You can also use Zoosk in any browser at zoosk.com, and it is the same account in both places.

Signing up is flexible. You can register with an email address, or with a Facebook, Google or Apple account. Push notifications can alert you to profile views, likes, messages and matches, if you choose to turn them on.

The bottom menu is the part you will use most. It gives quick access to Profile Settings, Matches and Chats.

Profile Settings is where you edit what a woman sees about you. Matches is where Zoosk shows you members. Chats is where your Connections wait for a message, and where you reply. Everything else in the app hangs off those three.

Carousel shows one member's photo and age at a time. You choose Like or Pass, and a mutual Like creates a Connection.

The screen carries so little to read that you decide in a second or two. That is also how a woman sees you when you turn up in her Carousel.

Explore is one of two views on the Search page. Instead of one member, it shows several at once, each in their own square. Each square carries a photo, a name, an age and, at the bottom of the photo, any interests you share.

A few small marks tell you things at a glance:

• A green dot means the member is online right now.
• A red heart in the corner means you Liked that member.
• A greyed-out square means you Passed.
• The members closest to you appear first.

The green dot is the useful one for a man. A woman who is online now is a woman who may answer in the next few minutes, which makes it a good moment to send a message.

SmartPick shows you a daily selection of recommended members. For each one you tap a heart to show interest, or an X to pass. It asks the least of you, because Zoosk has done the choosing.

Explore gives you something Carousel does not: the interests you share with each member, printed at the bottom of her photo.

That is ready-made material for a first message. a dating coach's advice on messaging is to make every message do a job, and a shared interest gives your opener a real subject. "I saw you like hiking" is a thin line. A question about one specific trail she might know is better. Start with the squares that show a shared interest and a green dot, and write to those first.

Look at Explore again. Your photo is going to appear as a small square, next to a name and an age, in a grid of other men's squares.

At that size, a crowded group photo is a smudge. A sunglasses shot hides the one thing she is trying to read. a dating coach says women swipe left almost by instinct on photos that look like everyone else's, and a grid of small squares is exactly the setting where that happens. So make the first photo easy to read at a glance. Put a clear picture of your face in daylight in front, and keep the group shots further back.

The second lesson is about speed. Chats is a short tap from anywhere, and Connections cool quickly. My method for getting a woman from an app to a real plan takes about four to seven messages. Every message has a purpose, and he asks for a plan once she has given him a real reply. Open Chats each day and write to the Connections who are waiting.

You can look at the app's layout in about ten minutes, so spend the time. Download it, create the account, and look at who is nearby in Explore before you decide whether to pay. If the women you see are active and close to you, Zoosk might suit you. If the grid is thin, you have learned that cheaply.

Messaging is the part that needs a paid membership, so the free tools are for deciding who to write to. Finish deciding first, then pay.