Once Dating App Review

How it works

As the name suggests you are presented with one suggested member every 24hrs.  These suggestions are claimed to be made by Once matchmakers i.e. in line with your age group and location. I wouldn’t call it a match as you have to both like each other before you are able to chat.  Both of you see each other at the same time then the time starts ticking for 24hrs to like and send each other an initial message.  After the 24hrs are up, you are given your next suggested member.

once count down

once match

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signing Up

This was pretty straight forward, you can either sign up using your Facebook account (which I chose not to do) or sign up using an email address.  You are then asked to input your basic details such as name, age, gender and sexual orientation (looking for guys or gals).  I was then surprised to see that it asked for your mobile phone number.  This is however so that they can send a confirmation number via text for authentication (nice touch I thought).

After inputting your basic details you then have the option to go into your profile and add more detail and pictures.  A short introduction and answering some more in depth questions about yourself.

Do you have to Pay?

No, it’s FREE, however usage is limited.  The currency of choice in Once is crowns. Its £4.99 for 5 crowns so basically £1 a crown, OUCH!!

once match

once message

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One crown allows you to either :-

  • Pick your own matches based on a selection presented to scroll through.
  • Send an old suggested member a message that you missed.
  • Know if your message has been read by the member or not.

Key Features

  • One suggested member every 24hrs.
  • Full control over your profile (pictures have to be approved).
  • Chat with a matched member on the app.
  • Ability to turn notifications on or off.
  • Heartbeat feature. More of a gimmick I think just because they can.
  • Scroll through your previous suggested members.

Pros

  • Very well coded app, easy to use and fast.  So many dating apps now, including Tinder, crash and hang.
  • Free usage within the restrictions of crowns.
  • Tailored member suggestions.
  • Optional Facebook integration to save time on sign up.

Cons

  • Only one match per 24hrs.  I know this is the unique selling point of this app but it’s a little like watching paint dry.  With other apps you can crack on in that 24hrs and potentially match with multiple members in 24hrs.  This was the main bugbear for me, not being able to make more progress and having to wait.  The time restriction doesn’t mean that the tailored suggestions are any more likely to match with you.  They may not even be looking at the app that day.  The idea seems to be that if you are only presented with one person for 24hrs then an interaction is more likely to occur.  But going off the long known fact of, you usually make a decision about a person in the first ten seconds then I don’t see how 24hrs will change that.
  • The crowns are expensive and not that useful.  You receive notifications if someone reads your profile anyway so you know if they have engaged or not.  It was nice to be able to select your own members but at the cost of £1 per member I’d rather just sit back and wait for the app suggestions.
  • Matchmaker suggestions.  I’m really not sure if there is a human behind this.  Other than age and location they have little else to go on.

To Conclude

It’s a nice app and I’ve had some fun interactions but compared to other apps available the unique selling point of this app makes it less effective.  The members do appear to be of higher quality than on other comparable dating apps but the interaction is lower.

If however you really aren’t investing much time in dating, you are happy to have a very light touch approach to see what happens and not being bothered by lots of members then this app could be for you.  The Once dating app would be a good addition do your dating arsenal if you are using other apps as well.

For full disclosure, I wasn’t paid to write this review but was approached by a PR agency to trial the app and given a few crowns for the full experience.  So my views are still impartial and I’ve enjoyed the experience.

Have you tried the Once Dating App?  Leave me a comment here and tell me about your experiences.

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5 Responses to Once Dating App Review

  1. Mike Gledhill February 20, 2017 at 12:38 pm #

    Once is dreadful. I can’t even send a message to the woman who they’ve picked as my Daily Match without buying a credit first.

    Everything – EVERYTHING – in this app costs money.

    Go elsewhere, there are much better apps out there.

  2. Elias Granqvist March 20, 2017 at 5:24 pm #

    Once may look good. It says it is free. However, as soon as you have sent out messages to just a few women, you have to pay to be able to contact the next one. I don’t mind paying as such, but you shouldn’t say in you advertising that it’s free when it isn’t.

    Also, all of your suggested matches are listed after one another, without any possibility to delete those which happen to be mismatches. This will make the list huge after a while and it will be hard to keep track of the real matches.

  3. Mall Grab April 12, 2017 at 1:46 pm #

    If anything, it’s gotten WORSE since the review waswritten.
    Crowns are €2 (need to buy 5 in a bundle).
    One crown to show interest, TWO to merely investigate is as respondent.

    Now it’s hard enough for a man to get a woman to reply ANY message even on free to use dating apps. What’s the likelihood of my dream girl ponying up €4 (or €10 tot start) just to read my message to her, see my face? Not. Gonna. Happen.

    Strangely, I am getting multiple “matches” or requests from (supposed) women. What’s the likelihood of these being actuall real women whoo’s paid hard digital cash to sent me a “hi”?

    How in the world does an app like this get millions in funding? What’s the added value, compared to any of thousands of dating apps?

    Really the interface is glacially slow. What should be a swipe, it like a who user experience in itself. So noughties. Perhaps to hide that really they’ve only gotten a few users on board. So it should take exactly my attention span to see all 5 of them…

    • James April 12, 2017 at 4:52 pm #

      Mall, I’m not sure if women actually pay as men do. It’s very common with the sites and apps that women get free access while men get charged. At the end of the day, there’s plenty of other options out there so no one has to pay for something they don’t see value in.

  4. Matt January 6, 2019 at 12:09 pm #

    I tried this app for a year (downloaded in 2015), seemed legit at first… But about 60% of the female profiles are clearly fake, and seem only there to make you buy crowns. I never had a single interesting interaction and would not recommend this to anyone!

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