What You Can Do on Boo for Free

Boo's basic features are free: you can Love or Pass on people and message your matches without paying. Free users are shown a set number of compatible souls each day, can send unlimited messages to their matches, and have daily Loves that reset after 24 hours.

The core of Boo costs nothing. On the free version you can:

• Love someone to send her a request, or Pass to move on.
• Get matched when a woman you sent love to sends love back.
• Message your matches as much as you like.

That is the whole path from a stranger to a conversation to a date. You do not need to pay for any part of it.

Two things are rationed on the free version.

The first is how many compatible souls Boo shows you each day. Once you have been through the day's set, you wait for more.

The second is your Loves. You have a daily supply, and it resets after 24 hours. Use them all in one sitting and you are done Loving until they reset.

Messaging your matches is not limited. Once a woman has sent love back, you can talk as much as you both want.

Because they are. A limited supply of Loves rewards a man who is choosy.

Look properly before you Love someone. Does her page give you something to talk about? Would you actually take her out? If the answer is a shrug, Pass and save the Love for someone better.

coach describes himself as far more into quality than quantity online, and a daily cap on Loves quietly pushes you the same way. A few careful Loves will do more for you than a pile of careless ones.

a dating coach is selective in a similar way once the matches come in. coach prefers a quick phone call before a first date. If he is not going to enjoy a woman's company, he would rather learn it in ten minutes on the phone than over a whole evening. Choosing carefully on Boo is the same instinct, applied earlier.

Unlimited messaging is the best part of the free version, and it is easy to waste.

A good first message, in My book, is about her and hands her something to respond to. On Boo you have an extra hook, because personality types are built into the app. A playful guess about what her type says about her is far better than "hey, how are you."

Unlimited does not mean you should talk forever. My aim is to get off the app and onto a date. Open, get some banter going, and once she is clearly enjoying it, suggest a drink sometime and swap numbers. Weeks of chat tend to fizzle, and meanwhile another man simply asks her out.

It also helps to message at set times. coach checks and answers his dating apps in one or two short sessions a day rather than all day long. That fits the free version well, since your souls and your Loves arrive on a daily rhythm anyway.

My rule on paying for any dating app is simple. Get at least some matches for free before you think about paying. If you are, then consider paying for more.

On Boo, the signs that you have outgrown free are practical. You regularly run out of Loves while there are still women you would like to send one to. Or you keep finishing the daily set and wishing it were bigger. That is when Boo's paid subscription, Boo Infinity, is worth a look.

If you are not getting matches on the free version, paying is unlikely to fix it. The usual culprit is your photos, then what you write about yourself, then your openers. coach puts them in that order for a reason.

Boo gives free users enough to find out whether the app works for them. That is worth taking seriously.

coach has been dating online for more than twenty years, and the habit he credits most is testing everything. So treat your first few weeks on Boo as a test. Try a different lead photo, rewrite one line about yourself, change how you open. Watch what happens to your matches.

If the free version starts producing dates, you have your answer. If it produces nothing after honest changes, the app may simply be a poor fit for where you live. Either way, you found out without spending a thing.