hehehehehe......Are you having trouble finding your Mr. or Mrs. Right in today’s Nigeria? You are not alone.
Some of the most common questions being
asked are: Which is the best dating app in Nigeria? Is there a free
dating app available in the country?
The good news is that there is plenty of
choice and six amazing Nigerian dating apps have been identified,
including one that may surprise you (see No. 6 below).
Check out the list below, starting with Nigeria’s top dating app: Badoo
#1. Badoo
Badoo is a location-based dating app
that shows you people who live and work near you. You can find people
based on age, location and gender. Badoo offers Nigerians the
opportunity to chat with people nearby and rate their photos. As if that
is not enough, there is an ‘Encounters’ feature, which allows you to
swipe through different people’s photos and say either yes or no; if
there’s a mutual yes, then both users receive a notification.
Popularity in Nigeria: Badoo has a
whopping 314 million users. Tens of thousands of Badoo’s huge users are
located in Lagos, Abuja and other communities throughout Nigeria. In
fact, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that Badoo was the
most downloaded dating app in Nigeria during 2015.
Device availability: Badoo is available
for phones using the Android and Apple operating systems. The many
Nigerians who use Windows phones will be pleased to hear that Badoo may
be downloaded from the Windows Store.
Verdict: 10/10 – Badoo is the hands down top dating dog in Nigeria.
#2. Tinder
Tinder is one of the most established
location-based dating applications available worldwide. The Tinder app
is very simple, it displays pictures of people in your vicinity and
allows you to either swipe right to “like” the person, or swipe left to
continue searching. If there is a match, Tinder will notify you and you
can begin sending messages to them. Tinder doesn’t have all the bells
and whistles of Badoo and instead, chooses to keep things simple for its
users.
Popularity in Nigeria: The bad news is
that Tinder doesn’t provide up to date information on the number of its
users. However, Google Trends shows that users in Lagos and Abuja are
searching for Tinder-related terms at a rapidly increasing rate.
Device availability: Tinder is available
on the Apple App Store and Google Play. BlackBerry users will be
disappointed to find out that the Tinder app has not been made available
for the BlackBerry OS. All the same, the new version of the Blackberry
OS (Blackberry 10 OS 10.3.1) provides access to the Amazon app store.
Amazon offers apps made for Android OS; so, if your BlackBerry has the
new OS, go right ahead and download Tinder from there.
Verdict: 8/10 – Tinder is the perfect dating app for those Nigerians who want to keep dating simple.
#3. Friendite
Friendite makes it into third place on
the list of the best Nigerian dating apps for mobile. The reason is that
it is targeted at Nigerian singles. The founder, Emmanuel Okeke, was
born and raised in Nigeria and started Friendite in order to provide a
bespoke dating service for Nigerians and Africans.
Popularity in Nigeria: According to its
website, Friendite is “the Nigerian most popular dating website among
singles.” However, the Google Play Store shows that Friendite has had
between 1,000 and 5,000 installs as of June 2016. No doubt, the low
level of installation will disappoint Friendite, which has a huge
following on Facebook, with close to 40,000 likes. Friendite will need
to work hard on its app in order to reach its potential and expand its
user base.
Device availability: A significant
disadvantage of Friendite is that it is only available for Android
mobiles at the moment. Users of BlackBerry, Windows and Apple phones
will need to consider other options.
Verdict: 7/10 – Friendite is perfect for those who have an Android phone and want an authentic Nigerian dating experience.
#4. Zoosk
Zoosk is an international dating app
that has a user base of over 26 million as of December 2014. The app is
available in 25 languages and in more than 80 countries. The numbers are
impressive and so are the special features. One such feature is Zoosk’s
“behavioural matchmaking engine” that uses a smart algorithm to
identify users’ behaviours and match users, according to patterns of
behaviour. Another feature is the “photo verification service” that aims
to ensure that users are not using photos that show them in a
flattering light.
Popularity in Nigeria: How popular is
Zoosk in Nigeria? Google gives some indication: the term “Zoosk”
attracted 1,000 average monthly Google searches in Nigeria as of June
2016, but this pales into comparison to Badoo and Tinder, which had
110,000 and 5,400 searches, respectively. In other words, Zoosk has a
small following in Nigeria but not nearly as much as its two main
rivals.
Device availability: Zoosk can be
downloaded onto mobiles using Apple, Android and Windows operating
systems. It’s now even available via the Amazon App Store.
Unfortunately, Zoosk is not available for BlackBerry devices, unless
they are using the Android operating system.
Verdict: 6/10 – Zoosk is Nigeria’s most
underrated dating app. It’s got some incredibly sexy features and should
be considered as a great alternative to Badoo and Tinder.
#5. NAIJing
Like Friendite, NAIJing is a home-grown
Nigerian dating app. Unusually, the NAIJing app is for mobile only and
there’s no desktop version. It offers all of the familiar bells and
whistles of dating apps such as the ability to “like” and communicate by
messaging. NAIJing was launched in December 2014 and it looks like it
is still suffering from a number of issues such as susceptibility to
hacking and bugs. Hopefully, the guys at NAIJing will sort out these
teething problems soon.
Popularity in Nigeria: According to the
Google Play Store, NAIJing has had 100,000 to 500,000 installs. This is
an impressive number when you consider that NAIJing doesn’t have a
desktop version. Judging by the number of reviews on the Google Play
Store (over 3,000), the NAIJing app is driving user engagement and
gaining in popularity among Nigerians at a rapid pace.
Device availability: The NAIJing dating
app is available for Android phones provided you have the 3.0 operating
system and above. Unfortunately, the app is not yet available for iPhone
and BlackBerry devices.
Verdict: 5/10 – NAIJing is let down by
the numerous technical issues but the team can turn this into one of the
best dating apps in Nigeria.
#6. Facebook
It’s perhaps surprising but Facebook has
made it into the list of the top Nigeria dating apps. Hold on, we hear
you say, isn’t Facebook a social network? The answer is yes. But in
Nigeria, it’s also one of the most popular dating tools around. One page
on Facebook, Hook Up and Mates in Nigeria, boasts almost 200,000 likes!
Here you can find Nigerian guys or girls asking for advice on dating or
looking for relationships, hook-ups and everything in between. Trust
us, it is an addictive stuff.
Popularity in Nigeria: Facebook sees
Africa as the future. Last year, it opened up its first office on the
continent in Johannesburg. In fact, Reuters reported that as of June
2014, Facebook had 15 million monthly active users in Nigeria. This is a
drop in the ocean when you consider that Nigeria has close to 90
million Internet users. However, each day, more and more Nigerians are
joining Facebook and using it for sharing content, talking with friends
and dating of course.
Device availability: The Facebook app is
pretty much available on every mobile device, including Apple, Android,
BlackBerry and Windows operating systems.
Verdict: 4/10 – You can have so much fun
to snoop on other Nigerians’ love lives via Facebook! All that said, if
you’re looking to find love, we recommend investing your time and
energy in an actual Nigerian dating app.
Additional Info: Nigeria Share
The reason we say love is a game but not
a game of numbers is that most dating apps remove most of the work from
online dating. This they do by drawing personal information and photos
directly from Facebook, leaving the user to just look at pretty pictures
and check yes or no, shut the app down and try another one.
In a recent research work, it was
reported that many people use dating apps just to play the game. It was
also reported that a study found that one in three people who have used
online dating had never actually gone on a date using the dating app.
Below are some dating app sites you can download on your PC or smartphones.
- Tinder
According to some reports, Tinder is the
most influential dating app: Tinder has set the model for most other
dating apps ever made available. All you have to do is swipe right if
you like the person; swipe left if you don’t. But if both people happen
to like each other, then it’s a match and a chat room opens up between
the two persons. But all that is needed to start is that all users need
to start with a Facebook account. It was reported that Tinder dating app
has “over six billion matches and counting,” because it has a wide net
- Hinge
It has been regarded as the best dating
app for cautious daters. Hinge uses the same swiping features as Tinder.
It only targets friends of friends on a user’s Facebook account. Now,
this is the real idea behind this dating app. The idea is so that you
can meet people who’re already in your social circle, or close to it.
- Happn
Recent research discovered that this
dating app called Happn has the ability to track the people who “cross
paths,” meaning people who are in close proximity to one another. The
report also went further to reveal that the profiles then show up in a
sea of photos on other users’ screens, which they can like or dislike.
If two people like each other, at this point, it’s a crush and a
conversation can begin. So that means it’s basically the advanced dating
app version of Tinder that can match you with the people who live, work
or shop in the same places where you do.
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