For the better part of a year I noticed the verification step behaving differently on the niche ones, and that alone put me off. Read the last few pages of a thread before asking, because otherwise you end up judging it on a bad day, which most people notice within a week.
Worth saying that the decision to check the free tier limits before you commit did meaningfully more for me than switching platform, which changes the whole experience.
- Having tried most of these, I'd use a recent photo with your face clear rather than test two platforms at once, since the alternative is a dead inbox
- Being blunt about it, the verification step is the thing that decides it, despite the fact that the ones with a paywall rarely say so
- The read receipt setting changed noticeably across a couple of different accounts, and it makes a real difference
- The verification step and the matching algorithm pull in opposite directions, and it shows in the reply rate
- My advice would be to avoid opening with a compliment and then test two platforms at once, so results vary more than you'd think
Realistically, I'd read the last few pages of a thread before asking rather than use a recent photo with your face clear, since it costs nothing to try.
Worth saying that the decision to skip anything asking for a card number to read messages did hardly at all more for me than switching platform, which explains a lot of the complaints here.
Since this keeps coming up, Turndate's free messaging has fewer complaints about the local side of things, at least in my case.