Why do so many dating apps focus strictly on what people like? It seems like Hater has taken on the role of an outlier in this struggle. Bucking the trend, their algorithm uses what people hate to bring about their matchmaking magic. How effective is Hater at this task? Does it work? We conducted a full Hater app review to provide our readership with those answers.

Watch our Hater app review on video or scroll down to continue reading.

— Pros and Cons of Hater —

Pros

• Innovative take on the “swiping” app
• Completely free
• Fast-growing
• Addictive

Cons

• Only available for iPhone and iPad
• Must use Facebook credentials to register

— Hater’s Concept —

Do you hate being the last one to be in on a new thing? For that matter do you hate hamsters? What about carpool karaoke? Green Skittles? Cats? Okay, cats that sing in carpool karaoke that only eat green Skittles?

Chances are that if you took a moment, you could come up with a list of things that you hate far faster and easier than a list of things that you like. Don’t worry, that doesn’t make you a bad person — it doesn’t make you a “hater.” It is, in fact, a normal part of human behavior. It is what makes us selective. For millennia, knowing what we hated kept us safe. It helped us avoid foods that could kill us, situations that would put us in peril. It also helped us to foster an appreciation for what we liked while prodding us to try new things — to experiment.

You see hating things is not a bad thing. In fact, it is an underutilized resource that we have within us. That is likely what the creators of the latest dating app, Hater, had in mind when they launched it in February of 2017.

Hater is one of the newest dating apps on the market. It is following what is becoming the latest norm for such apps. Essentially, taking the basic structure of a swiping app, keeping the look and navigational feel consistent with other popular swiping apps — but inserting one radically different twist to the mix. In the case of the Hater app, that fresh twist is that it relies on what people hate to find commonality.

When we first heard of this concept we snickered — just as you probably are doing this minute. After thinking about it, however, we began to realize, “hey, they may be on to something.” After all, if you think back to your first dates from hell — or those relationships that never fully got off the ground — usually they were doomed not because you didn’t share the same interests, rather, it was the fact that you hated something that the other one passionately cared about that ruined things.

— The Basics of the Hater App —

As we stated above, Hater is new to the online dating universe. It was launched in early 2017. This means that its user base is still quite small. It is so new that it has yet to reach the one million user mark. Hater claims to be growing at a pace of 30,000 new users per day with a 30 percent retention rate. It is expected to surpass the one million user benchmark in late summer/early autumn of 2017.

Currently, Hater is only available for the iPhone and iPad. The company has announced that it is working on an Android version. A tentative date for that release has yet to be announced.

Another area that is affected by the “newness” of the app is the method that it uses to register new users. Currently, the only way to register on Hater requires you to use your Facebook credentials. Don’t worry, Hater does not post anything to your Facebook account. They only use it to pull in photos and get some basic background information for creating your profile. Hater has indicated that they are working on a registration option that does not require Facebook credentials.

The founder of Hater has indicated that in the future he hopes to transition Hater from being solely a dating app, into more of a social network.

— Hater User Experience —

Even though Hater is still in its formative stage, the user interface is smooth, fast and intuitive. During our tests, we did not encounter any issues related to performance. The app never froze, nor did it lag or stutter.

We found the app to be friendly to those who just want to install it and go, as well as to those who enjoy tweaking things before moving forward. You can allow Hater to create your basic user profile from the data that it imported from your Facebook account, or you can easily access your profile through the menu and modify it.

To be honest, the overall user experience is on par with other swipe-based dating apps. What will seem different to most people, however, will be that your first encounter with the app does not involve looking at other members profile pictures. Instead, you are greeted with a series of “swiping topics.” Yes, instead of swiping right to “like” a person, or left to “pass” on a person, Hater makes you swipe on your feelings for a set of topics.

These include everything — from politics, food, fashion, personal habits, to nearly everything else you can imagine. During our test, we encountered topics such as Apple Nerds, Tom Brady, foodies, gluten-free foods, cargo shorts, texting while driving, 69, Crocs, Trump, Bernie Sanders, just to name a few. Hater claims that there are approximately 3,000 topics and that they refresh them frequently.

Unlike the two-option method common in other dating apps, Hater gives you four options for each topic that you are shown. You can swipe right if you “like” the topic, swipe upward if you “love” the topic, swipe left if you “dislike” the topic, or swipe downward if you “hate” the topic.

By holding down on the screen while swiping you can see the percentage of users that agreed with your assessment of the topic.

We must confess, as we tested Hater, swiping on topics started to become addictive. There were moments when some of our testers indicated that the very act of swiping on topics was taking on an entertaining appeal. Some even forgot for a moment that they were on a dating app.

Hater takes your topic data and adds it to your “top-hated” and “top-loved” topics on your profile. If you made a mistake or later change opinion on a topic, you can change your response by tapping on it in your “hates” and “loves” section.

— The Hater Matchmaking Formula —

Hater takes the information from your “swipe” responses, along with your age range, location, and gender preference to create a compatibility percentage. It then presents you with the profiles of the members that you best matchup with in descending order. If both members decide to activate the chat option, then both members will be connected for communication.

— Cost of Hater —

For now, Hater is completely free. There is the possibility that they may add premium features in the future.