The Wild dating app promotes itself as the app for everybody. Whether you are looking for something hot and casual or something long-term. Whether you are young or old, gay or straight, rich or poor — Wild claims to be the one-stop solution for finding the perfect partner. What’s more, it likes to sprinkle the word “free” throughout its marketing material.

The questions are — is Wild really suited for everybody? Is it really free? Does it come with a bag of chips? We reviewed the Wild app recently. Within our review, you will find the answers to these questions and maybe a few more.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• Powerful free version
• Excellent search filter
• Great for finding casual and long-term partners
• Photo verification reduces fakes and trolls

Cons

• No desktop version
• Filter not as effective in less densely populated areas
• VIP membership is a tad costly

— In-Depth Wild Dating App Review —

Who doesn’t want a hot and wild time, right? Who doesn’t want it even more if the path to get to it is free?

If you responded in the affirmative to both of those questions, then the dating and hookup app known as “Wild” is looking for you.

Wild is a mobile-only app. It can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play for iOS and Android devices. It has a nice little webpage that you can access from a desktop browser, but its purpose is only to offer its users information about the app and access to a dating-oriented blog. You cannot access the actual Wild platform on a desktop computer.

— Features —

The Wild interface relies on a type of user interaction that is similar to other dating apps such as Tinder. This involves users being presented with a profile picture of another member that the app has determined to be compatible with them. They then must “like” or “pass” on that member. If they both mutually like each other, they can then chat privately.

The way Wild determines who is compatible is based on the information that users provide on their own profile as well as the search filter. Users can filter potential matches by gender, age range, location, distance, the presence of a verified photo, the last time they were online, intention, interest, ethnicity and physical attributes.

The fact that Wild allows users to search based on the last time that someone logged in and that it also offers a photo verification feature, mitigates the effects of fake and abandoned profiles. While such profiles are present, since users can filter them out, their negative impact is negligible. On Wild, you can focus exclusively on the type of people that you are really interested in and avoid the trolls and catfish.

The “intention” attribute in the search filter also saves users time by seeing only potential matches that are looking for the same thing they are. This way, those seeking a casual one-night stand will not be awkwardly paired with someone looking for their soulmate.

— Photo Verification —

The photo verification feature requires you to submit an image of yourself in which you are making the thumbs-up sign or any other gesture that the verification team requires of you. The picture must be only of you — no other people must appear in the shot. It must also be clothed. Members of the photo verification team then analyze your image and will verify or deny it. If it is denied, you are given multiple attempts at getting it accepted. During our testing, one of our testers purposely submitted a photo that we knew did not meet with the Wild guidelines. Through that experiment, we ascertained that you get three attempts. After that, you are notified that in order to resubmit you must do so by opening a ticket via email support.

Once you have a verified photo you can upload more images to your public and private album. As the names imply, the private album is visible only to users that you authorize, whereas the public album is viewable by all.

— User Experience —

Although the features offered by Wild are not unique, our testers were all in agreement that the user experience that Wild offers is superior to that of its closest competitors. As a user, you feel more at ease using Wild. If you want something hot — you’ll find something hot. If you want something serious — you’ll find something serious.

With a robust filtering mechanism, many of the uncomfortable situations that often arise on other similar apps are removed. During the four days of testing that we put Wild through, our testers made contact with 25 potential matches. Of those, 21 appeared to be genuine and were individuals our testers would qualify as “meet in person” material.

One area which we hope Wild will expand upon in the near future is its online chat module. While fast and efficient, it does not allow for video. That is a shame considering that Wild offers the level of selectiveness that one needs to feel comfortable engaging in a video chat. Hopefully, they will not waste that opportunity too much longer.

The only downside that we encountered was that certain geographical regions of North America don’t have a large density of Wild members. In most major cities taking advantage of its powerful filtering mechanism is not a problem. In more out of the way areas, however, you may have to sacrifice a few degrees of selectiveness in order to find a sufficient number of matches.

— Cost —

By allowing all mutually liked users to be able to use the online chat feature, it can be said that Wild offers a powerful platform for free. However, as is often the case whenever the word “free” appears with dating apps, there is an exception.

In the case of Wild, the powerful search filters which make it so great require a VIP membership. This has a cost of $29.99 per month. In addition to the robust filtering, the VIP package also gives you unlimited chat which allows you to chat with anybody, not just those who liked you. Also, you can rewind your last selection in case you decide to like someone after having passed them. It also provides you the opportunity to see who liked you and change your search location. That latter VIP feature is excellent if you travel a lot.