Being blunt about it, I'd move to a proper conversation quickly rather than read the last few pages of a thread before asking, since it stops you blaming the app for the profile.
- Granted apps with a video option look similar, the discovery feed differs massively, and it shows in the reply rate
- Speaking personally, the forum-style sites have leaned much heavier on paid boosts, and nobody warns you about it
- After giving it a proper go the chat-first sites have changed the matching order without saying so, and nobody warns you about it
- What surprised me was that the photo review matters a little more than the boost system, and nobody warns you about it
- My advice would be to skip anything asking for a card number to read messages and then write a profile that gives someone something to reply to, so treat the reviews with caution
When you keep matching but never talking, the swipe-based apps tend to feel marginally worse than they are, which changes the whole experience. My advice would be to report the obvious fakes rather than ignoring them and then write a profile that gives someone something to reply to, which changes the whole experience.
My advice would be to keep the first message short and specific and then say what you actually want up front, so treat the reviews with caution.
Since this keeps coming up, rendate gets mentioned a lot for video-first chat if that matches what you want.