Take into account the men with whom it came out, how it would notice a dish in the restaurant. This is the tea principle, an application that has gone viral in the United States. According to Business Insider, the platform has increased first in the Pluz applications downloaded from the App Store in recent days.
In the Apple or Google application store, the platform collects a 4.7 note of more than 60,000 reviews. And, according to Tower sensor data, tea downloads increased 185% during the first 20 days of July compared to the same June period. The application was downloaded not less than one million times last week.
The concept of tea is simple: protect users from appointment applications such as Tinder, hinge or bumble. The application was founded precisely in 2023 by Sean Cook, after the entrepreneur was “witnessing the terrifying experience of his mother with online meetings.” In tea, users can consult the history of a partner potential and give their opinion after a date.
TripAdvisor of dates
For this, the platform offers a news, such as Instagram or Tiktok. But this time, without makeup tutorials, vacation photos or photos of a dish. Only photos of men, published by anonymous users. In some publications, women request “gossip” (gossip, editor’s note) about a person who interests them.
Others publish detailed opinions about their last meeting, a return of experience in TripAdvisor. “He is a catfish (identity usurper, note)! We combined in hinge and never offered me anything. So I used tea and I saw that he used a photo of an influencer,” alerts a woman.
“It’s really manipulative and narcissistic. He always talks to one of his ex that he can’t forget. Girls, they flee,” another wrote about rich. “We drank a drink, it was very considered, so nothing to inform. It was a love,” excites a surfer under Rae’s photo.
Once the publication is online, the members react with a red flag (red flag, editor’s note) to indicate that they should not go out with this person. On the contrary, a green flag (green flag, editor’s note) specifies other users that there is no danger. Everyone can also comment.
Free formula users are limited to 5 investigations per month. Beyond that, you must invite friends to join the application or pay the monthly subscription at $ 15. It gives access to other features, such as verifying the funds, looking for phone numbers and looking for inverted images. 10% of ASD profits are donated to the national direct domestic violence line.
“Avoid terrifying situations”
As expected, the concept has reacted on social networks. Some women say that the application helps them avoid dishonest or violent couples. It is possible to know if a man has a criminal record or if he is already married.
In the opinions of the App Store, users are unanimous. “It’s a 10/10. It really helps women avoid terrifying situations, especially when you moved or start seeing someone you don’t know well,” said a surfer. “It’s a nugget. I learned to put barriers and more easily recognize red flags,” adds another. “It was more than necessary.”
According to Jennifer, a member of the TEA, traditional dating platforms have not taken the safety of women enough. “Tea shows how dangerous and poorly regulated these dating sites. Women should be able to inform the shaded men, who would then be subject to restrictions or prohibited. Unfortunately, many appointments applications are only applications to find sexual partners,” deplores x.
“Honestly, given the amount of psychopaths in this world, I don’t see where the problem is. Several serial murderers had different names and stories for each of their victims. If a photo had been transmitted, some may have been saved,” writes Lauren, another.
Uncompared accusations and revenge
In fact, other Internet users, including men, question project ethics. They regret the number of abuses on the platform. In Reddit, some make sure they have been accused of infidelity when they were already divorced, or a red flag has been received simply for having finished an appointment prematurely, because the current did not pass.
“The application could be easily used to disseminate unseeding accusations, particularly thanks to its anonymous character, and even to take revenge,” confirms Jake Moore, cyber security advisor at ESET with Forbes. Especially because men do not have access to the application and cannot respond to criticism. “The format of the platform unfortunately could make it vulnerable to abuse.”
Another point of tension, respect for privacy. It is not possible to take screenshots. But several personal information is shared, such as the name, address, photo or telephone number without the authorization of the main interested parties. Some, such as Jason, have filed a complaint “to violate copyright and advertising” through the Apple dispute form. “The publication has disappeared in a few hours,” he said.
To respond to the phenomenon of peas, some men launched teaborn, a request to allow men to write down women after an appointment. The platform is already classified 11 of the most downloaded applications in the United States app store.
This is not the first time that users have helped avoid bad meetings. On Facebook, the groups “Are we dating the same type?” (In French, “Frequent to the same type?”, Editor’s note) Allow women to share the profiles of the men with whom they are in contact and ask the group members if there are “red flags” to report.
Source: BFM TV
