XMeeting is an online dating site that focuses on hookups and casual encounters. It has been in operation since 2003. Having spent such a long time in continuous operation, we were curious as to why its brand is not more well-known. Is it a hidden gem of a hook-up site? Or does it perform so poorly that it doesn’t warrant your attention? We conducted a review of XMeeting.com to establish once and for all whether it is worthy of your attention.

— Pros and Cons —

Pros

• fast registration process
• Upfront disclaimer about their use of virtual profiles
• presence of a dedicated help section

Cons

• majority of female profiles are fake
• presence of automated chatbots
• requires a paid membership to have communication functionality

— In-Depth XMeeting Review —

When you first visit XMeeting.com you are greeted by a welcome page that has a very generic and somewhat antiquated look and feel. It consists of multiple tiled images of supposed female members. There is also a registration widget with a ribbon reading “free” running along the upper corner.

If you are new to the online dating scene this type of page design might pique your interest. If, however, you already have experience with online dating, this type of site design might serve as a red flag.

— Registration Process —

The registration process for XMeeting is short and sweet. From the site’s welcome page you are required to enter a valid email address, your date of birth, and to select the password to access the site. Upon entering that information you must agree to the terms and conditions and click on the green “get started” button.

From there, a couple of pop-up windows will open asking you to select a username, identify your gender, the gender of the match that you are seeking, and your location.

Additionally, you are given the option to upload a profile picture and to write a short text description about yourself.

While such a short registration process might seem convenient, to us it was another red flag. When sites have such a low barrier to entry that is usually indicative of sites that function more as membership mills. These tend to produce few concrete results.

When you first log into XMeeting after registering, you will be served with a pop-up nag screen that reads “email confirmation.” It serves as a reminder for you to check the email address that you used during registration in order to click on a verification link.

 

If you do not heed this warning, a red warning banner will appear at the top of your membership page.

— User Interface —

The XMeeting user interface is divided into four sections. You can arrive at each section by using the navigation bar at the top of the page. The site consists of the “Dating Center,” a “live cams,” search, and a help section.

The Dating Center is what you first see when you log on. It provides you with an overview of who’s online. It also notifies you of any messages that you have received from other members.

The search section allows you to search for other members by age range and location. Yes, the only parameters that can be modified when you conduct a search on XMeeting are age and location. There is an added option to search for users that are currently online or those that have photos. There are not, however, any advanced search filtering parameters as are found on other dating and hookup sites.

Search results for potential matches consist solely of the profile image of the person. In order to glance at more detailed aspects of their profile, you must click on the image. When you do so, another window is opened where will find a private message box. This is where you can send a text message to the member consisting of no more than 1,000 characters.

The live cams section was a bit confusing to us. For some of our testers, when they clicked on it they were redirected to a third-party live cam sex site. This site appears to be entirely separate from XMeeting and required a separate form of payment. Other testers, however, were redirected to a variety of adult-oriented advertising.

The help section redirects you to frequently asked questions and also gives you the option to submit a customer service ticket to the XMeeting support team.

— The User Experience —

While we found the XMeeting platform to be exceedingly simplistic and shallow, that was not our biggest complaint. Our greatest concern came with the large number of — what the site itself calls — “computer-generated virtual profiles.”

When our testers conducted searches on the site, the vast majority of the search results consisted of profiles that contained various red flags regarding their authenticity. When we conducted reverse image searches on the profile images, over 90 percent came back as having been used on other dating and adult sites under different names and locations. This would lead us to believe that these were some of the “virtual profiles” that the site’s terms of service were referring to.

Even more distressing, when you are in the Dating Center you start to receive notifications of incoming messages. The majority of the originating profiles for those messages share the similar traits of the fake profiles described above.

If you ask yourself why would a site take the time to create so many virtual profiles — the answer is simple. Whether you conduct a search and you want to make contact with another member — or if you receive an incoming message and you wish to respond — you will be immediately notified that you must be a paid member in order to send or respond to messages.

Before you start screaming about fairness or lack of fairness, you should be aware that all of this is stipulated clearly and in detail in the terms of service of the site. Not only does it appear in the TOS, it also appears on the welcome page in the registration box when you accept the terms and conditions.

At the very least we can say this about XMeeting, they do not hide their use of fake profiles.

— Cost —

XMeeting is the sort of site that we would never recommend. However, in the event that you feel differently and you decide to become a paid member, a one-month membership has a cost of $29.95. You could also choose to pay for three months in advance for a total of $59.95, or six months for $99.95.