John

After seeing conflicting information from various dating site reviews, which I suspected were sponsored, I turned to Trustpilot, which did seem to confirm my worst fears about most of the sites reviewed. Reviews for Badoo seemed better than most, with the main complaint being from people who had been locked out of their accounts for alleged violations of rules. I figured that had to be better than some of the horror stories associated with other sites.

Having joined, and experienced Badoo, I felt I should leave a review to explain some of the other downsides of the site.

There are three main problems with Badoo. First, Badoo is very visual oriented. There a dozen questions though most people only answer a few, and choose one of the 3 or 4 suggested answers. There are 3 "dating questions" - e.g. "What's your ideal first date?". Members are invited to choose up to 8 categories from a list which best describe their interests. And they are given 500 characters to sum themselves up, though most people don't even fill in that many. In other words there is little written information on the profiles, many have almost nothing but photographs. This makes Badoo more suitable for those looking for more superficial connections guided mainly by visual attraction. For over 55's, whose potential partners are, shall we say, less photogenic, it makes for a less than uplifting experience where members' least attractive attributes are those showcased. To be fair, things are made worse because hardly any members try to make the most of their 500 characters, to get across their personality.

The second problem is that the Badoo app / web design is far inferior to sites I was using 10 years ago. There are icons whose meaning is not explained (I discovered that clicking on the icon of clapping hands sends a "Hello" type text message to the person whose profile is being viewed). There are various "features" which can make it impossible to correct mistakes. I accidentally hit "Send" before writing a message, so an empty message got sent. But I was unable to send a second message until I'd got a reply to my empty message. I cannot see a list of those whose profiles I have "liked", only those who've liked me (for some reason mainly Thai or other oriental women, most of whom are probably living overseas though they give their addresses as in the UK). The website is dumbed down to match the app, but is even harder to navigate (e.g. I had to go to the phone app in order to change my default picture).

I ended joining twice because Badoo couldn't match my verification photo (taken live from my PC) to previously uploaded photos, the problem being that somehow the site had bypassed the uploading stage, and there was no opportunity to try again to upload. Attempts to explain this to the support team resulted in a few automated messages suggesting I try to retake the verification photo, then when I persisted in explaining why this would not work, and asked for a human being to take notice and produce an effective solution, I was told my issue had been reviewed, and I had been barred from the site. (Having had this experience I would be inclined to believe others who have been barred when they complain that Badoo is unwilling to justify their actions beyond saying that rules were broken).

The third big problem is a lack of information. After joining as a Premium member for a year (a big mistake) I discovered there was a higher tier, but I couldn't find out anything about it because there is no upgrade route, I'd have to unsubscribe from my current membership level (which, as it had cost £100 was not going to happen). The higher tier made reference to features not explained anywhere I could find; "chats" (though I can send messages as a Premium member), "shows", and "crushes". I believe these can be purchased ad-hoc using an in-app currency "credits". I'm generally pretty good at finding where a site is hiding useful information, but I think sites such as Reddit would turn out to be the best places to discover the ins and outs of Badoo.

All in all I've found Badoo to be frustrating and ineffective site, and having seen what £100 has got me I've felt no inclination to spend good money after bad to explore these microtransational features. After all, if the site did what it was supposed to, people would not need to pay extra in order to find dates. Badoo are incentivised to provide a poor service in order to encourage people to buy extras.

In summary I'd say Badoo is best suited to younger people looking for casual dating or willing to take a punt based mainly on a person's physical appearance, and who can live with the site's limitations. One star as I'm not intending to use it further despite being a Premium member for another year.