The Tinder flame may be burning brightest in the mobile dating world, but re-branded app DOWN, previously known under the less than discreet name Bang With Friends, is holding its own in the UK as a mobile matchmaking app.
The recently re-branded DOWN app gives people the choice of instantly ‘getting down’, or playing nice and choosing to ‘get a date’ instead. As the stats show, however, Britons seem more than down for some fun.
DOWN has proven its popularity in the UK this past year
This past year’s UK stats show that men chose to ‘get down’ rather than go on a date 73% of the time, while women preferred to get down 84% of the time.
London also boasts the most ‘bangable’ person in the world, a new ranking based on how many users chose to get down with one single person. The most ‘bangable’ person had a whopping score of 51,289.
For those unfamiliar with the app, the concept is simple: flip through to see your own Facebook friends, as well as friends of friends, chose who you’d be ‘down’ to get with, and wait for the match making magic to happen. If you’re both ‘down’, you’ll get a notification and can start planning a rendezvous. The app gives you recommendations based on the number of mutual friends, as well as a similar ‘hotness’ rating, which is based on how many people click through to your profile or hope to get ‘down’ with you.
If both users are ‘down’, they’ll get the chance to send messages
DOWN comes as a much needed makeover to the previous ‘Bang With Friends’ concept, which would only let users choose from among their own Facebook friends. This limited number of potential matches (and unlimited potential for awkward situations), along with a name open to basically no interpretation, turned many users off.
The new concept has undoubtedly drawn comparisons to the popular dating app Tinder, which imports a user’s Facebook profile and location to find potential matches within their vicinity, only making a match if both participants ‘like’ each other. While both of these networks use Facebook, DOWN has the advantage of only showing people that users have at least one mutual friend with, taking some of the guess work out of ‘blind’ dating.
These apps signify a new trend in online dating, shying away from tedious personal profiles and instead opting for snap judgments based on a few pictures and some shared interests or friends.
92% of DOWN matches exchanging at least 6 messages doesn’t necessarily equate to an epic love story, but it shows that people are having fun. Intentions might be a bit murky, but the popularity of the app shows that people are, indeed, down for a good time.
