The best dating apps and sites for New Yorkers

Think of CitySocializer as a singles mixer crossed with MeetUp. Powered through Facebook, it strives for group dating at its best, hosting events daily and even allowing you to create your own. Initially launched in the U.K.—it debuted stateside in September—CitySocializer works by tagging your profile with your likes and the neighborhoods you visit. Custom events make this app the closest you can get to artisanal dating (think: an afternoon at the Dumbo Arts Festival or a Lower East Side food crawl).
Works With: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Get the app: citysocializer.com/new-york/meet-people

If you’re really into beards and really unwilling to date anyone without one, download this app, which matches facial-hair lovers with facial-hair havers. You can interact after you each “heart” each other, and the site flags users who copy and paste messages (for shame). With more than 60,000 users, you can satisfy your fetish—sorry—personal preference.
Works With: iOS, Android
Get the app: bristlr.com

There’s no shortage of apps for gay men looking to get some on the fly (SCRUFF. Grindr. Recon…). But what if you’re hoping for something long-term? Distinc.tt caters to LGBTers (although you can join if you’re straight) looking for relationships, not hookups, tipping subscribers off to community events where they can mingle. The social network allows you to browse nearby singles who you can message—and you can even get groups together for trips to the museum.
Works with: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Get the app: distinc.tt

If you’re the person on Tinder who directs viewers to your Instagram, this is the app for you. Now in its second iteration, Glimpse uses your Instagram photos’ metadata (like geolocation and hashtags) to connect you with users who have similar interests. Wait, what the what? How does this work? Basically, if you’re, say, way into food porn, you’re shown nearby people who also take too many snaps of that to-die-for dinner. You can check out their photo feeds and message them in the hopes of, you know, meeting in the flesh. Unlike Tinder, it awesomely allows you to go back and change your mind if you reject someone initially.
Works with: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Get the app: itsglimpse.com

For those tired of the usual drab first date, How About We connects singles who are more interested in creative outings. If you use the app’s “speed dating” option, like Tinder, you see a person's full-size picture, age and location, but you also get to see their idea for a date before you swipe left or right. The dates vary, like the extravagant “go to the opera,” fun “take an improv class together” or traditional “grab a beer in the West Village.” To receive messages and view popular dates, you have to pay to play. If your first date is an adventure, you’re not likely to get hung up on the same old boring first-date banter.
Works with: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Get the app: howaboutwe.com/about

Just looking for a nice Jewish boy or girl? JSwipe is Tinder crossed with JDate, and it’s quickly gaining steam, with 50 million swipes and 2.5 million messages exchanged. Chosen users are given an 18-day countdown to make an interaction with each match, after which your phone will announce “Mazel tov!” For the quirk factor: A swipe right leads to a green smiling Star of David; a swipe left to a red-star frowny face. You can also let your matches know if you’re kosher, conservative, reform, orthodox or “just Jewish.”
Works with: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Get the app: jswipeapp.com

The classic dating site Match.com has been pairing couples since the 1990s, and some people swear by it. The app matches you with others based on key words from your profile, such as your listed interests. Nonpaying users can browse and “wink,” but you have to pay for a subscription to get chatting. Though if you don’t find a match in your first six months, you can get another six months free. Because it can be pricey to receive messages (a six-month subscription is $24 per month), the website tends to appeal to people more seriously looking.
Works with: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Get the app: match.com

Connects you to every eligible bachelor and bachelorette in New York City and the rest of the known universe. No, seriously; everyone you know is on it; once they reboot Sex and the City (you know it’s coming), the entire show will just be people going on OkCupid dates.What, you still think you’re going to meet someone at a bar? Get online and ignite that big city romance you’ve always dreamed of already!
Works with: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Get the app: okcupid.com

Unlike Grindr, Scruff is for more than just hooking up. Its more extensive profile-building features allow gay guys to communicate for just about any purpose, from one-night stands to networking. Seeing the same old fellas at the same old Village bars can get fatiguing—expand those horizons.
Works with: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows Phone
Get the app: scruff.com

Lets you swipe, swipe, swipe away until you’ve exhausted every coitus candidate in the city (conceivably, anyway). Also provides endless fodder for New York Times thinkpieces on “hookup culture.” NYC is DTF. Don’t get left behind.
Works with: Android, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Get the app: gotinder.com

It’s an ingenious way to minimize creepy dudes—the only way for men to join is via a personal invitation from a female. Women, meanwhile, can join whenever. (Who needs wage equality!) After a mutual match, you start messaging, but Wyldfire encourages face-to-face meet-ups by stopping you at 20 exchanges, so put some thought into your natural selection.
Works with: iOS, coming soon to Android
Get the app: wyldfireapp.com