Taffy identifies itself as “the chat-first way to meeting new people.” That, in fact, in a nutshell, is the best way to describe what the app does. On Taffy, potential partners talk first before they can see what each other looks like. How does Taffy pull this off? What is the reaction from its users? More importantly, is it more effective than more traditional dating apps?

Don’t be hasty in jumping to your own conclusions prematurely. Take a couple of minutes to read our full review of Taffy and determine for yourself if this app has potential.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• Free
• Intuitive user interface
• 6 different relationship styles offered

Cons

• Only available for iOS devices
• Requires some patience in the beginning
• Fairly New – Fewer Members than Most Popular Dating Apps

— In-Depth Taffy App Review —

When was the last time that you really got to know somebody before you even knew what they looked like? How about while on a dating app?

Chances are that the majority of you are going to answer that such a situation has never happened. Don’t feel bad, after all, practically every dating and hookup app out there is designed around the physical attraction that we feel when sizing people up as potential mates. This is why the Taffy dating app is so intriguing.

— How Taffy Works —

The secret to what makes Taffy different rests with the way that its discovery feature is structured. Unlike swipe-based apps that require users to view the profile images of suggested matches and then like them or pass on them, Taffy obscures the profile images of potential matches.

Yes, you read that correctly, Taffy purposefully obscures profile images. You may be scratching your head at this moment asking yourself, “well, if you can’t see what they look like how are you going to know if I like them?” The answer to that is, you have a conversation.

Even though we live in a high-tech society where we are all connected 24/7, we are, at our core, highly conversational creatures. In the more than 20 years that online dating has been in existence, the act of finding a compatible partner placed conversation as one of the “rewards” that we earned for somebody finding us attractive. Dating sites placed conversation as something collateral to visual attraction when it came to searching for a partner.

Taffy makes you have a chat with potential matches. The longer the both of you remain actively engaged in the chat, the less obscured that your profile images become. In other words, the more you talk, the more of your physical appearance is revealed.

— During Our Testing —

Having tested the app for ourselves and having also interviewed dozens of other people who have used it, we can say with a fair degree of certainty that the majority of users find this quite useful.

Most users stated how by chatting with somebody for a few minutes before seeing what they looked like made a huge difference in evaluating the true potential of that person. They further stated that if they felt chemistry during the conversation, it helped them to place the physical appearance of the person into a more pragmatic context.

When you think about it, this is more in line with how people find a partner in real life. The more you talk with someone, the more time you share together — the more easily that you will develop feelings for them. The physical attraction component would still be important, but you are more prone to overlook certain physical attributes if you are already attracted to them by more deeper characteristics such as personality, wit, and empathy.

— Installation and Registration —

Taffy is available only as a mobile app for iOS devices. You can download it and install it for free from the App Store. Alternatively, you can visit the information and support website at taffy.chat and by entering your phone number, a direct link is texted to you to download the app that way.

Once you install it, the next step is to register for an account. This process is fairly straightforward. You must provide basic personal information about yourself including your age, gender, valid email, and location. You will also be requested to upload a profile image. Taffy requests that these images be of you posing alone with your face clearly visible in the frame.

— Platform and Features —

The Taffy platform is simple and intuitive to use. When you are ready to start looking for a match, you will be given six options. These options pertain to the sort of match that you are seeking. Your options are “love,” “friends,” “hookup,” “advice,” “chat,” and “whatever.” By allowing you these six degrees of flexibility, Taffy offers a wide range of possibilities for a large number of people.

You can create a post in one or all of the categories. This post is what others will see when you appear in their search results along with your obscured profile image.

When you conduct a search you can also fine tune the results that you receive by specifying the gender, age range, and distance of the suggested matches. The matches are presented to you in either a list or columnar format. We found the columnar format to be more interesting. With it, you get to see the obscured profile images in tile format with their corresponding post, name, age, and gender as a foreground text.

Once you find somebody that intrigues you with the words of their post, you can select them for a conversation. If they accept, you’re good to go. What happens next is that with each progression in the chat, the less obscure your profile images will become.

During our tests, we found that somewhere between the tenth and 15th mutual exchange in the chat window, the profile images had been fully revealed.

— Useful or Gimmicky —

Initially, we were prone to believe that Taffy was just going to be one of those gimmicky-type dating apps that you would visit once and then forget. After testing it, however, we feel that Taffy has far greater potential. By placing conversation at the forefront, Taffy has revolutionized the traditional dating app formula.

When you use Taffy, you get a sense that you are genuinely getting to know the other person on the other side. It makes you establish more realistic expectations and it incorporates the nonvisual elements of personality into the discovery process. What’s more, Taffy does this without the need of tediously long personality tests.