Swoon Review

Let me just begin by saying that my girlfriend was not happy with me using and reviewing this app, and rightfully so, but that's just how darn much I want to please our readers. You're welcome, in advance.

Swoon is a dating app that uses Facebook details including age, relationship status and location to match up potential daters who share similar interests, which Swoon gathers from Pages users have "liked." Thankfully, though, no activity within the app is ever shared on Facebook itself.

Users are presented with a profile picture of a person, alongside their name, age, the amount of shared friends between them and their shared interests. Tapping the picture divulges slightly more information, including how far away they are, when they were last active and what those shared interests actually are. However, the interest itself is only displayed as a tiny profile picture from the "liked" Page on Facebook, so unless users can remember from the image, it's rather pointless. Next comes the fun part though, when the user can tap either the cross or the tick underneath the profile picture (or alternatively, swipe the picture in the appropriate direction). If the other person ticks back, a conversation will begin and the sparks can fly, as they say.

There are various customisation options, including sexual orientation, distance and the ability to add more profile pictures. It's bare bones, but that's actually the best part. This is mobile dating at the end of the day, so who wants to be scrolling through reams of personal info and biographies when you can just nonchalantly swipe someone to the side? I felt a bit mean, but at the same time, it was pretty fun,

None of the ladies I saw particularly looked like potential serial killers, so that's a plus. However, I never actually met any of them, so you never know. That's just the risk of online dating as a whole I guess. The fact that users must sign in again using Facebook if the app hasn't been used for a while is annoying, though certainly not a deal-breaker by any means, just slightly inconvenient.

Swoon succeeds in making "iDating" easy and fun, thanks to the minimalistic and pleasant interface that takes it back to (slightly shallow) basics, in terms of physical attraction and interests (is the fact that we both like Will Smith enough, really?). Considering it is free at the moment, any singletons looking for love in their area should definitely give it a try.