Why Is Badoo So Bad?

When Badoo feels bad, it is usually one of four things. There are too few active women where you live. Features you want sit behind Premium or Credits. Your inbox fills with junk. Or you are using it in a way that works against you. Badoo publishes no success rate for men, so nobody can honestly say it is bad for everyone. Work out which of the four is yours before you delete the app.

This is the biggest cause and the one men blame least. a dating coach says the same app can be busy in one city and quiet in the next, and good game on an app full of inactive pages works worse than ordinary game on an app where people want to meet.

Bumble Inc.'s annual report says Badoo is a market leader in several countries in Europe and Latin America. If you live somewhere else, or in a small town, expect a smaller pool. Spend three days in Encounters and look at the women you see. If most photos are old and most details are empty, you have your answer without paying anything.

Badoo is free to start, and it earns money from Premium and Credits. That shows up as friction.

• Without Premium, the people who liked you are blurred in the Likes tab.
• Votes in Encounters have a daily limit, and it refreshes 24 hours after you hit it. Premium removes it.
• Starting a chat without a match needs verification and Credits.
• Ads come with the free version, and Premium removes them.

None of that makes the app dishonest. It does make the free version feel like a toll road, and a man who hits all four in one week concludes the whole thing is rigged. Decide which one costs you real results, and consider paying for that one alone.

coach lists fake accounts and bots among the standing irritations of online dating. Some inboxes fill with accounts that look fake, send links or push you to talk somewhere else.

Badoo gives you tools. Under Control your experience you can choose whether everyone can write to you or only people you have liked, and you can hide from people you have not liked. Reporting and blocking are there too. Use them, then judge the app on what is left.

This is the cause you control. Four habits sink more Badoo accounts than any feature.

Liking nearly everyone. My warning for every app is that it treats a man who likes everybody as less attractive and shows him fewer of the women he wants. Men who cut their likes in half and chose with care saw better results.

A weak lead photo. Women decide in seconds, and coach says they judge a man by his worst photo, not his best. Take out any picture that is only all right.

A lazy first line. A match is permission to talk, not a date. Write one sentence about something in her photos and ask a question she can answer in a line.

Chatting for weeks. Move toward a plan in the first handful of exchanges. A chat with no plan in it fades.

Premium shows who likes you, removes the vote limit and the ads, and gives the messages you send priority. Credits pay for extras such as chatting before a match. These fix friction, and they do not fix a weak page.

a dating coach calls paid features multipliers: they multiply the result you already have. A man with a decent set of photos and a lively city may get more from Premium. A man whose free week gives him nothing will find it multiplies nothing. Test one paid feature for a short stretch, count the change, and drop it if the numbers do not move.

1. Fix the photos. Use a clear, recent photo of your face first, and add photo verification.
2. Set a distance you would really travel for one drink, and a sensible age range.
3. Vote in short daily sessions, and answer your open conversations before you vote on anyone new.
4. Count for two weeks: women liked, matches, conversations, dates.

If the pool is thin, the photos are good and the count is still flat after two weeks, Badoo is the wrong app in your city. That is a useful result, not a failure. My advice is to run more than one app and let your numbers choose. Put the time into whichever one gives you dates.