Raya 17+

I go off and on with online dating, giving it a shot here and there. I have stints of giving relationships a shot and then come back to it, all the while keeping the subscription active. I’ve been on Raya for a while, I’d say almost 2 years. it’s not without the same issues as all online dating platforms, people ghost, they match and don’t start conversations, etc. I’ve accepted those as now normal behavior on dating apps. But I do think Raya has more attractive and interesting people, so I don’t mind paying for it with the prospect of finding myself a beautiful and creative person. In the beginning I match pretty regularly, but it seems I haven’t matched with anyone in months on Raya, despite the tons of new users I’m seeing and liking. I’m wondering if it’s because I’ve been on there for so long they’ve simply stopped showing me? It certainly feels that way. I know they claim to be selective and sensitive to the community, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve deemed me undatable or something because of how long I’ve had the app. Def get in and get out with this app. Paying for it longer than a year seemingly puts you on their matching blacklist and becomes just a frustrating waste of money. I started up a different dating app recently and the matches are coming in hot. So, not to sound cocky, but I don’t think it’s me. Will not be renewing the next round.

Traditional dating apps don’t work for me. I kept running into people that felt either threatened by my success or were aggressively trying to take advantage of it. I feel safe in this space. I also find with my crazy hours/touring schedule, I could really only end up with someone who is equally busy and career driven. This app filters out the static. To me, it doesn’t matter if they only show people in my city because myself and (I’m assuming) most other people on the app travel so often that it doesn’t really matter. It’s fun and I’m having great conversations. It was frustrating being waitlisted for 4-5 days when all my friends were on it but it was worth it in my opinion. I don’t really want it to be accessible because then it doesn’t serve the same purpose.
Honestly, being a “celebrity” completely takes away your ability to get in on the dating app fun and this has been so fun for my REALLY famous friends to do what everyone else is doing. Great app concept. Yes it’s kind of elitist but isn’t that *sort of* the point?

Took only a couple weeks to get my application accepted, which seems better than most people I’ve heard. However, now that I have access to the service it’s clearly not worth paying for. The UI encourages people to swipe solely for pictures. There’s very little opportunity to share about yourself in text or with badges (like how Bumble let’s you pick religion, politics, drinker, etc…). You can write a “bio” but it seems like less than 10% of users do it. The “slideshow” functionality of showing you the photos of user is a terrible user experience. It’s difficult to navigate through the photos and also difficult to get back to looking at the profile. All of this for an app that requires a $20/month fee. Pretty absurd. After a week on it I’m still at zero matches (M28 NYC). I have a friend who’s been on it for a month and has only had two matches (F28 LA). Just doesn’t feel like it’s a service worth paying for.

Edit: after one month I have had 2 matches, neither of which sent a single message.