A women-only tool designed to help with dating woes is now going viral, but this new Tea dating app has garnered its fair share of criticism.
There’s a new dating app that’s going viral, but this one isn’t about finding matches but avoiding them. The Tea dating app is gaining notoriety in 2025, and its use has become exceedingly controversial. What is the purpose of this new platform? The Tea app is designed to help women review their dates in advance, allowing them to look at what other women have said about a potential partner before they decide to trust them. Of the many dating apps in 2025, this particular app promises to have women’s safety as its sole priority and it’s a large reason for why it’s gaining so much attention.
The Tea app offers to help women find red flags in their dating partner and make a more informed decision on whether they want to give someone a chance. This assessment is based on what their previous partners have had to say about the men, essentially helping women conduct a background check or getting a more detailed resume to look over. While many women have applauded the app, others have pointed out that it can easily be misused for misandry and spreading misinformation about someone.
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The Tea Dating App Is In Piping Hot Trouble for Complicating the Dating Sphere
The Tea dating app was launched back in 2023 by Sean Cook, after he personally witnessed how unsafe the dating world could be for women after his mother had some terrifying encounters with men, some who even had criminal records. Understanding how the modern dating world had made people more accessible to each other without setting in the right measures in place to ensure these connections were safe, he took it upon himself to create a space that prioritized women’s safety.
Partnering with social media influencer Daniella Szetela, who is now the social media director for the app, he used his experience in the tech industry to “revolutionize dating safety by equipping women with cutting-edge tools, real-time insights, and a powerful community to navigate the modern dating world with confidence and control.” Essentially, he built Tea to give women the power to share their experiences with their past dating partners and conduct a more thorough review of prospective ones.
While the app has been around for a while, it recently went viral, as most things do, on TikTok. Users began popularizing the platform and recommending it to followers, and others began discrediting it and recommending that the app be taken down. Both groups have served to make the Tea dating app more well-known than it was before.
How Does the Tea App Help to Find Red Flags in Dating?
Tea is primarily known for its anonymous review platform that can be accessed exclusively by women, where users can leave their feedback on men they have dated and some of the issues they have had with them. From cheating to violence in their relationships, women can help other women make safer dating decisions through their own experiences.
Apart from helping women review dates, the Tea app also has features like reverse image search to help women check if they are being catfished by someone who has stolen an identity, or conduct background checks to see if someone has a criminal record they should be aware of. The phone number lookup feature also helps women check if the person they are planning to meet is secretly married, bringing up social media profiles to help women connect the dots.
It is effectively designed for something that features such cute fonts and colors. If you’re already on other dating apps hoping to find your soulmate among their ranks, the Tea dating app is designed to work as a sister app that can help you ensure they aren’t someone else’s legally-bound soulmate already. While the concept sounds good in theory, there are many privacy concerns surrounding such an app.
Image: The Tea dating app has an assortment of positive user reviews on Android and iOS.
The Tea App Could Be Misused and Men Aren’t Happy About It
By design, the Tea app is exclusive to women who have to get verified to use the app, and it leaves men out of the conversation, with no awareness of what is being said about them online. As the reviews are anonymous, many are fearful that someone with malicious intentions could use it to malign their character without repercussions.
Some worry that these apps put more information about men online than they are comfortable sharing with a new partner, and while defenders of the app claim it’s all public information, there is still cause for worry. A resentful romantic partner could well use the app to create a negative image of their exes online, and some worry that the viral Tea app could cause more harm than good.
There have been some concerns around how posts on the app could eventually lead to legal actions and cases of defamation. Some say you can’t be sued for speaking the truth, but we’ve seen that this is not always the case. Communities surrounding group vetting of potential partners are not new, however, the Tea app is helping women review dates on a much larger, more comprehensive scale than ever before. It places great power in the hands of women, but some fear that the power will not be wielded responsibly.
Gen Z Dating Trends Have Caused a Fall in the Profitability of the Online Dating Market
The entirety of Gen Z has faced multiple criticisms and accusations over the years, but one peculiar concern about the population is that they aren’t dating enough. During their prime, platforms like Tinder and Hinge were extremely successful due to the steady flow of hopeful individuals who signed up to meet someone on the platform, however, in recent years, most dating apps have seen a decline in users.
A 2023 Statesman survey found that millennials made up 61% of the dating app user base while Gen Z accounted for only 26%. Since then, dating apps have tried to evolve to make themselves more appealing to the general public. Bumble rid itself of its women-message-first identifier to give more men a chance to secure a date and even began promoting more in-person events to bring people together. Tinder has expanded its Double Date feature to encourage more people to feel comfortable going on dates, but it’s unclear if these strategies are effective. There are new dating apps arriving on the market offering niche features, but they’ve seen varying degrees of success.
Does this mean Gen Z no longer feels the need to date? Not necessarily. The “loneliness epidemic” has been cited often, and it appears that the generation feels disconnected and alienated to an alarming degree. However, the real concerns around dating, particularly through online platforms, have lost their appeal for many. The Tea dating app largely has positive user reviews, but from the outside, there has been a lot of criticism stating that it is only souring the dating market and discouraging both men and women from even attempting to connect with someone new.
Is the Tea App a Benefit or a Curse?
Depending on who you ask, the opinions vary drastically. There are a healthy number of user reviews that state that the Tea dating app has helped them steer clear of trouble and saved them considerable heartbreak. Many women feel safer by checking in with their community before trusting someone new, and that is ultimately what the app is about.
However, those who have criticized the app for its privacy breaches are not entirely wrong either. Having your name placed on a public forum where people can debate your shortcomings can put anyone in a bad mood, and it serves to add to the gender divide that we have currently witnessed across the globe.
Many believe that this discomfort is a valid tradeoff in exchange for the safety of millions of women who are put in dangerous situations every single day, and it starts a conversation on why such an app is necessary in the first place. Promoting accountability and pre-emptive prevention are part of Tea’s mission, and there is something to be said about this goal, but a growing sense of resentment now accompanies it.
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