Coffee dates are the quintessential first dates. Sipping caffeine in a cute, intimate spot is a great way to sit close with someone new and talk about your lives. Other date ideas may be more exciting, but coffee dates just work. As a dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel works, too. But other dating apps work just as well, if not better, while delivering many more options.
Getting Started
Coffee Meets Bagel is a free mobile app for Android and iOS devices (I primarily tested on an iPhone 12 mini) that pitches itself as a place for deeper, long-term relationships. It’s main hook is offering users daily, curated matches, called “Bagels.” The goal is to quickly connect with high-quality matches, instead of mindlessly swiping random faces as you’d do with Editors’ Choice pick Tinder.
However, the initial sign-up process felt pretty indistinguishable from any other dating app. You enter your phone number to create an account, type in basic background details (location, career, education, gender), and partner preferences (age, religion, height). I had to upload at least one photo to have my account approved, but I didn’t need to fill out a lengthy questionnaire, like with eharmony or OkCupid. I initially felt that Coffee Meets Bagel couldn’t possibly knew me very well due to the lack of questions, but the app gave me the opportunity to express myself.
Profiles and Interface
Fortunately, once you dive deep into Coffee Meets Bagel’s digital dating pool, you’ll find more ways to showcase your personality. Along with entering photos and personal details, you can fill out prompts that add profile flair. What terrifies you? What’s the strongest opinion you hold? What never fails to make you laugh? These are the kinds of details a potential couple could share to see.
The profiles themselves display big photos up top, with personal details underneath. Instead of displaying your name, profiles showcase your job and school. If you want to seriously invest in someone, those are important details to know. A dating app’s community also goes a long way toward defining its overall culture, and many folks I saw on the app definitely seemed more interested in long-lasting love rather than casual flings.
Coffee Meets Bagel’s main sections let you browse through suggested matches, see who likes you, discover and search for profiles beyond your suggestions, and read your chats. You can send a message alongside your likes, but you can only like a handful of suggested matches per day for free, similar to Hinge. Liking other profiles costs a premium currency, which I’ll explain later. Still, there’s really not much you can do each day beyond browse and potentially like a few suggestions.
It’s nice to limit your time on a dating app to just a few minutes per day, rather than let it become a sad, all-consuming obsession. However, Coffee Meets Bagel’s big hook, daily matches, is something you’ll also find in other dating apps, such as our Editors’ Choice Match. You may be turned off by Kippo’s geeky dating or Facebook Dating’s social media integration, but at least those apps offer something you won’t find anywhere else.
Premium Extras
Continuing the food theme, Coffee Meets Bagel sells a premium currency called Beans. With Beans, you can like any profile, not just ones suggested to you. If both people in a chat don’t send at least one message within three days, the chat expires. This encourages you to keep conversations active, but sometimes adults are just busy. However, you can also spend beans to extend expired conversations beyond that tight timeline. Beans come in packs of 100, 2,000, and 3,000 for $1.99, $23.99, and $24.99, respectively.
Coffee Meets Bagel also sells a premium subscription. Subscribers save money when they buy Beans, and get access to expected, but still appreciated, premium features. See everyone who likes you. Send more likes per month. Boost your profile’s visibility. Send your message right to the top of the inbox. Turn on read receipts. Learn even more about your matches with activity reports. Subscriptions cost $35 for one month, $75 for three months, and $120 for six months, which are standard prices for the category.
Social Distancing With Coffee Meets Bagel
With the COVID-19 pandemic calming down, at least in some parts of the world, would-be lovers may feel comfortable enough to meet in person. In your Coffee Meets Bagel profile, you can display whether or not you’ve received a vaccine shot. However, if you still want to play it safe, virtual dating is the way to go.
Unfortunately, Coffee Meets Bagel lacks video chat functionality. Instead, you can privately answer whether or not you’d like to go on a virtual date with the person you’re chatting with. If both people agree, they’ll get a notification, but they’ll have to figure out the logistics themselves. At least the Coffee Meets Bagel blog has some virtual dating ideas.
Other dating services offer video chat functionality, so you can go on your virtual date right in the app. Match, Tinder, Bumble, eharmony, POF, and Clover all let you go on romantic video dates.
Not Quite Caffeinated
Coffee Meets Bagel’s relaxed and easy-going atmosphere promises you a shot at real love without much hard work; just pick a few daily matches and hope one works out. That said, you can have that same casual experience, while gaining access to more robust dating features, with our Editors’ Choice pick Match. If you’re interested in a hot hookup summer, turn your attention toward our other Editors’ Choice pick, Tinder.
