Best dating apps for poc

“I definitely enjoy the ‘on my terms’ aspect of Bumble,” says Koby O., a queer woman who has tried a variety of dating apps before. “I liked that when I matched with men [on Bumble], they couldn't message me first, but if I matched with a woman or non-binary person, either one of us could message first. It definitely reduces the instances of grossness or inappropriate solicitation,” she told Teen Vogue.

And to kick things up a notch, Bumble also recently introduced Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz, two subsets of the app that respectively allow you to find friend matches and also match with people you might want to do business with. We guess you could say that there are lots of kinds of relationships buzzing over at Bumble.

Bumble's foundations are pretty heteronormative, but they definitely deserve credit for expanding the platform to include all types of romantic and non-romantic matches.

HER (previously Dattch)

HER, which was originally called “Dattch,” generated tons of talk when it first hit the dating app scene — mostly because it was deemed the first of its kind — a dating app exclusively for queer women, created by queer women. Before it existed, there wasn’t necessarily a mainstream dating app that was made specifically for women who love women, and that was inclusive of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.

However, because the title of the app and the space itself feels more reserved for one specific identity — people who identify as a woman — it comes off as less inclusive for non-cisgender queer people who don’t necessarily identify as women and who may also be looking for women. However, this year the app relaunched and rebranded to better represent the spectrum of people from the LGBTQ community who use or want to use HER. The app and website also recently launched its communities feature along with the rebrand, which features 11 groups of various communities people might identify with. According to TechCrunch, the communities include a space for the transgender community, a group for womxn of color, transgender womxn specifically, and more.

LGBTQutie

The new app LGBTQutie was created because the co-founders saw that most dating apps are designed for heterosexual relationships, or if they are LGBTQ inclusive, they focus on gay men or lesbian women. According to a release, seeing that lack of community for LGBTQ people looking for long-term relationships, friendships, or meaningful relationships was frustrating, so they created LGBTQutie, which is meant to be a more inclusive, relationship-focused app for the LGBTQ community.

The app also provides LGBTQ news and blogs that focus on mental health in relationships, which talk about what habits create healthy relationships, which is super key no matter what kind of relationship you have with someone. Another feature that the app has is the in-app video messages that users can send to each other, so that they can verify they aren’t being duped or catfished, and feel safer.

Glimmer

There’s a relatively new dating app, Glimmer, that comes with the promise of going “beyond just looks” in order to “connect users based on shared interests and lifestyles." When so many dating apps like Tinder and even more inclusive ones like HER sometimes put so much emphasis on physical looks and the importance of body type in the person you date, it can be alienating for disabled people. Swipe features and photo features in dating apps can promote making quick, or shallow judgments based on looks, prompting a pretty frustrating experience for people with any kind of disabilities.