As a social media slash dating platform, Badoo has quite a lot of features you can enjoy:
- Badoo Encounters
Badoo Encounters is a game that lets you search for matches quickly. This feature shows you matches one by one, with each entry showing the user's picture plus necessary information such as their name, age, and how many interests you have in common.
Press the heart icon (or one on your keyboard) if you're interested, or the X icon (two on your keyboard) if you're not. Most of the members play this fast and easy way by breezing through the different options, similar to Tinder's swipe left or right function.
However, if you are meticulous, there are links in the upper right-hand corner of each entry where you can view and share the user's profile. You can also filter the game to show only guys or girls, or matches of a specific age range.
Free members have a limited number of swipes, but credits can be used to increase this number.
- People Nearby
Badoo's primary search function, People Nearby, allows you to find other members. You can filter the search to show only the new accounts or those that are currently online. Aside from that, there are several search filters that you can use to limit the results:
- Gender
- What they're looking for (friends, chat, date)
- Age
- Location
- Distance away from you
Despite the name, People Nearby is not only about searching for people close to your location, you can even get results from members who intentionally put their positions in private. Plus,you can also filter your search to show members from another city or state.
- Featured Users
One the bottom right corner of your profile page, you will see several profile pictures. These are pictures from featured users. You can have your photo featured by paying credits. Click on a photo to view that user's profile. If you're interested, you can message him or her.
- Messaging Feature
Since Badoo dating is a free service, messaging others is possible, even without paying for premium services. The only thing you need to start a conversation is to upload a photo of yourself. Once you have a picture, you can network with other members or ask them out on dates.
However, members can only send up to two messages to members they haven't matched. Once you've used up your two messages, they need to reply to you first before you can send more.
You can set it so that you can get email and browser notifications whenever you get a new message. If there's a user you're particularly interested, and you hit it off immediately, you can save them on your favorites list. On the other hand, if the user says something offensive or inappropriate, you can choose to block them so they can't contact you any further.
As for Badoo's messaging feature, we give it a 4 out of 5. With most limited messaging services, you can only message another user once, or worse, youcan't message a person who hasn't liked yourphoto back. With Badoo dating, at least you get two tries to get the attention of the person you're trying to message, and if they reply, the limits on messaging are lifted. However, credits can raise the number of messages sent even before you receive a reply.
While this may feel unsafe and unregulated for some, messaging is one of the essential features of any dating platform. After all, if the goal is to match people, there's no reason why messaging should be made inconvenient.
- Badoo Live
"Badoo Live" enabledmembers to host a live video stream, which all Badoo members couldwatch and join. Badoo announced that the feature was removed from the site as they wanted their users to focus on connections rather than viewing streams.
- Send Songs
Send a Song feature in the Badoo app allows Badoo members to send favourite tracks to each other via Apple Music to create meaningful connections through song-sharing.If you’re not a current Apple Music subscriber, you can still send and receive 30-second song previews with your matches or access a special offer for Badoo members of up to 2 months free of Apple Music within the app.
