With the rebranding of the DOWN dating app (Bang with Friends) and added features, we felt our readership was due an honest review. Here is our DOWN app review.

Watch Our DOWN app review on video or scroll down to continue reading.

— Pros and Cons of DOWN —

Pros

• Free to join
• Registration is fast and easy
• Available for both Apple and Android devices
• Members are genuine
• Gives you the option to find matches for hookups or dating

Cons

• Requires use of Facebook credentials
• Cannot offer much detail on your profile
• Premium version is costly at $19.99

— In-Depth DOWN App Review —

Some of you might be familiar with the DOWN dating app by its former name, “Bang with Friends.” Back then it was an app designed to help Facebook friends (and friends of friends) find each other anonymously for casual hookups. It was intended to act as the virtual version of that friend we all have that is constantly trying to hook up different people that they know. The main attribute of the app was that unless both parties expressed a mutual interest for a casual hookup, the other would never find out about the other’s intentions or desires.

Fast forward to 2017 and the app is now rebranded as DOWN. It still operates under the same overarching concept of its “Bang with Friends” days, but it now also offers greater nuance in the type of encounters that you can search for on the app.

— DOWN’S Reliance on Facebook —

The DOWN app still relies heavily on the Facebook API. For example, in order to register on DOWN, you must do so by using your Facebook credentials. The terms of service for DOWN clearly state that they will never post anything to your Facebook timeline. It stipulates that your Facebook credentials are only used to verify that you are in fact a real person, thus eliminating the scourge of fake profiles that often haunt other dating apps. During our DOWN app review, we did not detect any ancillary use of our Facebook data. We felt secure that our privacy was always maintained by DOWN.

The other use of the Facebook API by DOWN is for the curation of matchmaking suggestions. From our point of view, even though it does require mutual interest for either party to be aware of the existence of the other on DOWN — we can still be empathetic to those that have expressed concerns about potential awkward situations. Imagine seeing the partner of your best friend appearing before your screen. Ouch — awkward indeed.

— DOWN Registration —

DOWN is available only as a mobile app. There is no desktop browser-based version. In order to register, you must first download the DOWN app from either iTunes or Google Play. Once you have installed the app, all that is required is for you to sign in with your Facebook credentials. The app will detect your personal data from Facebook. It will use it to build your DOWN profile. As such, there is no need to fill out any background or personality data. You don’t even have to upload a profile picture. The app pulls this directly from your Facebook profile.

For those of you becoming alarmed at the thought of your current Facebook profile picture being used to try and draw the physical lust of others — relax, breathe. DOWN allows you to choose any photo that you have on Facebook, not necessarily the one that you are actively using for your profile.

— DOWN App User Experience —

When you first start using DOWN it will appear to you — especially if you’ve used other “swiping” dating apps before — as being familiar and intuitive to use. From our perspective during testing, however, we did find that it took a little bit of time to get used to the up, down and left swiping of DOWN. Usually, one is accustomed to right or left.

On DOWN, the profile images of prospective matches are presented to you one at a time. If you swipe up, that means that you feel that person is “dating” material. In other words, that person might make for a good candidate for a long-term relationship — someone you may want to get to know better, not someone for a quickie.

If you swipe down, that means that you are eager to “get down” with that person. Yes, “getting down” means a no-strings-attached casual encounter — you know what we mean.

If you swipe left, that means that you have no interest whatsoever in the person appearing in the profile.

When you swipe up or down on someone’s profile, they are not notified until which time they swipe up or down on your profile. When that happens, you are both notified. These notifications arrive directly to your DOWN app, but you can also configure the notification to reach you via email or Facebook’s notifications center.

Mind you, if you swipe up on a profile and that person swipes down, you will both still be notified. However, the notification will include a suggestion that you should both “talk more first” before proceeding.

Every day, DOWN members receive 10 new profiles for their review and consideration — called the “daily picks.” If this number seems too low for you, you can pay $19.99 per month for the premium version which increases this number to 25 daily profiles.

— Expectations vs Reality —

When we started our Down review we were under the impression that our potential matches would only come from our Facebook friends and friends of friends. We are happy to report that is not the case. DOWN has a user base of 5 million people. Of these, 3 million can be considered high-frequency users. All of these DOWN members comprise the base from which DOWN generates potential matchmaking suggestions. During our testing in both the free and premium versions, we never had a shortage of suggestions on our “daily picks.”