If you’re curious about the Candidate dating app for yourself, give our review a read. It is bound to give you that extra insight that you need in order to determine if it’s right for you.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• Free app
• Innovative and captivating Q&A game format
• Available for both Android and iOS
• Easy registration process

Cons

• Lack of desktop version
• Not well suited for those seeking fast casual hookups

— In-Depth Candidate Dating App Review —

Are you tired of the same old online dating paradigm?

Are you tired of the same old swipe right, swipe left, found on every app that you have installed on your phone?

If you’re looking for something new, something innovative in the world of online dating, you are not alone. An increasing number of online daters are getting tired of cookie-cutter dating apps.

This is why the developers of Candidate, a dating app that revolves around an interactive question-and-answer dating game, brought their app to market in 2016. Since then, it has been attracting an increasing number of new members.

Could this be because it is effective? Or is it merely due to the curiosity factor of something new? In short, should you give Candidate a try?

Those are exactly the questions that we attempted to answer in our review of Candidate.

— Where to Find Candidate —

Candidate was developed as a mobile-only app. There are versions for Android and iOS devices. Each can be downloaded from their respective repositories at Google Play and the App Store.

Based on the experience gathered by our testers — and the fact that it has obtained a four-plus star rating on both Google Play and the App Store — we can declare that in terms of speed and performance the Candidate dating app is above par.

— Registering for an Account —

As with all online dating apps, after you download and install the Candidate dating app you must register for an account in order to activate a profile and start engaging with other members.

Candidate offers you three ways to register. One involves linking your Facebook account to Candidate. Since this process is also seen by the app as a way to authenticate your identity, it is also the fastest way to register. When you link your Facebook account to Candidate it will import your basic personal data and pictures. Don’t worry, if you need to modify some of the basic aspects of your personal details or if you wish to select a specific profile picture, you can do so after registering by accessing your account settings.

The second way to register involves submitting a valid email address. The app then sends you a confirmation link via a validation email. You must click on that link to continue with the registration process. You must also enter your basic personal information, such as age, gender, sexual orientation, location, etc., manually.

The third method for registration would require you to validate your registration with your phone number. To do so, you submit your phone number via the app and soon thereafter you will receive an SMS text message containing a verification code. You must then enter that code on the registration screen when prompted to do so.

Regardless of which registration method you choose, the process is smooth and streamlined. It shouldn’t take you more than two or three minutes.

— The Premise Behind the Candidate Dating App —

Unlike other online dating apps that place a central focus on the physical attractiveness of members, Candidate takes a more pragmatic approach. They use a question and answer format starting with five dating candidates and three rounds of questions. Through a process of elimination, you end up with the top candidate/winner.

The winner, in turn, is the one who you are matched with and can then engage in an online chat on the app.

The idea behind this is not only that the process is fun and engaging, but also that the candidates will gain valuable insight as to their respective personalities and true potential for compatibility. In other words, before they can decide whether to like or pass on someone solely on looks, each candidate gets to know more about the sense of humor, charm, and wit of the others.

When you think about it, that’s not a bad idea at all. How many times on other dating apps have you swiped right and started a conversation only to find out that the other person lacks charm, has no sense of humor, or simply was everything you hated. By using this type of question-game format not only does it give you something to look forward to — and therefore more likely to use the app on a regular basis — but it also greatly increases the possibility of a match turning into a meaningful chat and maybe more. As a matter of fact, the Candidate dating app claims that over 51 percent of matches at the end of a game result in meaningful chats. On other dating apps, that percentage is much lower — somewhere between 10 and 20 percent.

— How the Game is Played —

As a member of Candidate, you can choose to discover games to play as a “candidate/participant” and you can also start your own game by posting a question. The questions that can be posted are left entirely to the members. Of course, there are a few rules that you must adhere to with regards to keeping the questions in good taste and unoffensive. Beyond those rules, however, you can be as creative or as conventional as you want with your game questions.

That’s the whole point with Candidate. The questions are what draw in the participants, not your profile image. That means that the more intriguing your question, the more candidates that you will get. Likewise, if you are answering a game question, it will be your answers that will draw the questioner’s attention.

Each game starts with five players, each providing an answer. The questioner must then rate the top three participants’ answers. Those three “candidates” then move on to round two and face another question from you. In that round, you rate the top two participants. That brings you to the final round in which you select the “top candidate.”