This dating app will actually help you get offline and go out

The online dating game can often seem like exactly that – a game. You’re so busy swiping and moving onto the next thing that the end purpose of actually meeting someone special seems to get further away the longer you play. There’s so much emphasis on quantity rather than quality that the apps can seem designed to keep you logging on instead of getting out into the real world and making contact.

The Inner Circle is different: a dating app designed to get you meeting your match in real life as quickly as possible. The difference is apparent as soon as you log on: you’re already looking at a line-up of pre-screened matches as opposed to a sea of randoms. These are verified real people whose actual profile is a match for yours, whom you would have swiped right on anyway. Because if you’re serious about partnering up, why would you waste time browsing faces that are only there to flatter your ego?    

Photograph: Supplied

All of which speeds up the process of getting out and meeting people. The Inner Circle has a section called ‘Spots’ that’s a bit like Time Out in that it rates bars and restaurants – except instead of evaluating the quality of the cuisine or the cocktails, it’s rating for date success based on the reviews posted by other users. You can use it to see which hip bars or cosy pubs your potential date loves hanging out in, for instance. There are other sections too including ‘Trips’ that allows you to register your holidays or business travel in advance so you can meet up with locals or travellers in other cities.

The Inner Circle’s other point of difference is the singles events that it hosts. Fast food ultimately isn’t nourishing, and neither is speed dating. The Inner Circle’s events, by contrast, are more natural, intimate affairs, with unusual ice-breakers – they don’t seem so different to meeting someone in real life. The events even allow you to see which members are going when you buy a ticket through the app.

The Inner Circle allows you to find a match in minutes, or an event to go to in seconds, getting you out and experiencing the city and making quality connections. It all adds up to a richer, more rewarding dating experience, stripping away the tech-fetishism and bringing back the human touch.  

Sound good? Register for free here.