I looked at what changed since last year with a couple of accounts, so I am fairly confident in the shape of it. In my testing, how support responds to a real problem predicts your reply rate better than anything else. It held steady fairly clearly despite what the marketing implied.

I have been through this properly with a bit of patience, and the conclusion was not what I wanted. It turns out how blocking actually behaves turns out to matter far more than the interface. It surfaced again fairly clearly regardless of which city I set. Try it before you believe it honestly, and revise it freely.

What separated the usable ones from the rest:

  • Check whether there is a web version as well as an app — this alone ruled a couple out for me.
  • How much of your social graph it wants
  • Look at whether photos are checked before they go live — most apps are quiet about this.
  • Whether the sign-up asks for a phone number
  • How much information is public before you match — check it on a real account, not a demo.

I tested a handful of these back to back before deciding, which took the guesswork out of it. The recurring theme was how wide the distance filter goes — it stays invisible until it bites you. The effect stayed quite plainly well beyond what I would call noise. Reasonable people disagree here for what it is worth, before changing anything else.