happn Dating App reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A dating app built on the idea of "you crossed paths in real life," but in practice it feels empty: users report there's barely anyone in their city, while the feed and matches are flooded with bots and scammers.
What users love
For some, the concept and the map do land
Despite everything, some people praise the core "show who you crossed paths with" idea and the map, call the app easy to use — and a few find real dates. One user went on 4 dates with a guy without paying for premium.
10/10, met a really cute guy, went on 4 dates w him till now 🧿🧿🧿 and many in future🧿🧿🧿, I didn't pay for premium. a slow app takes time to find good ones. (I found mine thanks to happn hehe)
showing nearby people / who have crossed your path is an amazing idea
I like the map feature . shame about the cost
What users hate
An empty feed: no crossings, no one nearby
happn's core mechanic — surfacing people you crossed paths with — simply doesn't fire for many users. People go months, even a full year, without a single new profile, and the map and "vibes" stay empty.
Not showing any crossing, not showing any new happners, not showing any online happners, not showing anything. And this is not new, it's been more then 2 months.
No one ever showed up on the discover feed, I made sure the always on location was enabled and my data has been working fine.
Never had anyone cross paths with me, and even in the "vibes" category there's been like 3 people.
The app is overrun with bots and fake profiles
The single most common complaint: real people are scarce and the feed is packed with bots, fakes and OnlyFans spam. People go months without one genuine match, and the same photos show up across different profiles.
Literally full of porn bots, scammers and fake profiles. Why even bother?
50+ matches in 3 months, not a single real profile 👎
full of fake profiles. At a point I had 5 likes with the same pictures
An organized restaurant-bill scam
A separate and disturbingly systematic con: a "woman" insists on meeting at one specific bar or restaurant, and the bill arrives at 10–15 thousand, of which she takes a commission. Users describe the exact same script, especially in Bangalore.
When the bill came, it was 11,000. I told her I wouldn't pay; I paid for the Red Bull. It was a perfect scam.
they take to to a resturants they have commision on the bill amount. dont fall for it. check youtube for this scam. every girl i spoke say the same story line.
you will get a scammer where you will be invited to a cafe which was already fixed by that girl and cafe owner they will charge you a bill of 10k tp 15k minimum
Scammers pull you off-app and extort you
The people who do message are often scammers on a VPN: they push you to WhatsApp or Telegram, send ChatGPT images as fake "proof," extort personal info and money, then delete the account.
every single match has been a scammer with a VPN trying to get you off app and extort you by getting your personal information and intimate messages.
I play along sometimes and they use methods like ChatGPT AI images to fake proof and similar methods. Horrendous security within this app.
Mostly fake bot profiles, some of which try to extort you for money.
You pay, and it gets worse
The core grievance of paying users: after buying premium the profiles around you don't grow — they vanish. Several people made a second free account and saw more profiles than on the paid one, leaving the sense the subscription deliberately throttles the feed.
i purchased premium as soon as they got my money they limit people around my area. I have created another fake account without premium and i saw more and more profiles around my area.
before purchasing it shows so many accounts but after purchasing it's premium zero options available.
I'll buy a subscription of 6 months but now neither see even a single profile nor a single match
Free users can't do anything at all
Basic actions — liking, messaging, seeing who liked you — are all locked behind a paywall. Without a subscription the app shrinks to staring at other people's profiles, with likes rationed to three at a time and a 24-hour wait.
whats the point if u cant like anyone or see who liked u ??? stupid app
Nothing is free No chats. No seeing who likes you. after you make a profile except looking at other profiles and that makes the app a big waste of space
useless. you get 3 swipes and thats it? I have to wait 24hrs to swipe again?. absolutely ridiculous.
Likes are hidden to sell you CrushTime
Users spot a pattern: the people who liked you are deliberately pulled out of the swipe feed to force you to pay or play the "CrushTime" guessing game. The mechanic itself is buggy and burns your super-likes for nothing.
Profiles that like you are deliberately hidden from your swipe feed to make you pay or interact with their "crushtime" feature
but you have to pay to see them. not sure how they're able to swipe on me, but I can't on them
Crush time automatically 'likes' people without warning when you make a guess, this 'feature' needs removing.
Accounts get banned right after signup with no explanation
People get banned or frozen within an hour of creating a profile — before sending a single message — citing a "terms violation." Support replies with canned templates and refuses to explain what actually happened.
set up an account and profile and within 1hour account got suspended, I hadn't even met anyone or got to use the app and they said I have violated terms and conditions
account is blocked suddenly because of no specific reason. gives standard and vague replies. very poor app design.
kicked me out after I got premium and not letting me back in
Removing the verified filter is a safety issue
You used to be able to filter for verified profiles and see who was online and real — the latest update removed that. Against a backdrop of rampant scammers, users read it as a deliberate trade of their safety for money.
Happn has removed the option to filter users who are verified. Explain why!
The only explanation is that you do not care about our safety, you only care about $$$.
Earlier, this app was good because it used to show who was currently online or who the real users were. But after the recent update, it has become so useless
No video call or photo sharing — you can't tell who you're talking to
There's no in-app video call and no way to send a photo inside the chat. With so many fakes around, that means you can't verify who you're talking to within happn — and users are effectively pushed to meet unverified people in person.
I'd rather not give contact info to people I don't know in person, but there doesn't seem to be a video call option?
Also, no option to send photos or video chat, so you can never know who you're chatting to. Encouraging to meet predators directly?
I Don't Know Why Don't The Provide Facility of Selecting And Replying To A Particular Message And Adding Attachment in The Chats? 🤔🤔🤔😐😐😐
Location is ignored: matches from other cities and countries
Despite the "crossed paths via GPS" premise, people are shown profiles hundreds of kilometers away — other states and countries — when the whole concept is local. And often you can't adjust the distance at all.
if thats true why am I getting matches from La and Miami when I live in Orlando.
unless you pay an extortionate price per month you dont get shown to anyone closer than above 80kms away and mostly abroad like kenya, indonisia and china
Ignores your location and distance preference won't even let you see a like if they are in your search.
Pricing is opaque and steep
The subscription cost feels both high and dishonestly framed: they advertise "$15," but that's weekly, so it's over $27 a month. And the "50% off" offers often just fail to load.
over $27 per month. they lie and say it's $15, but that's weekly. you can't do or see anything unless you pay an insanely high amount, and then you get nothing for the money.
poor app expensive subscription not good for people who can afford fix it or remove it
The app frequently offers me a 50% off trial, but fails to load the more info screen
Buggy at every step: freezes, crashes, broken verification
The app freezes during onboarding and when changing photos, crashes, and won't let you sign in even after paying. The video-selfie verification endlessly fails with "verification failed" for many, blocking them out of the product entirely.
it's been a pretty terrible experience so far. every screen freezes and errors out. can't upload or change photos
just keeps crashing. I can't use it even though I got a subscription. can't even sign in. support hasn't helped.
Profile verification is broken. Every time I take a video selfie and upload it, within seconds a message appears that says 'verification failed'.
Intrusive biometrics and data-selling feel alarming
To use it you must keep location on at all times, and users are convinced that data gets sold. Separately, the demand for a detailed face scan including the iris from multiple angles unsettles people — they compare it to creating a government ID.
In order for this app to work, you have to enable it to track you at all times. And that data will be sold. Nope. Hard pass. Uninstalled.
it demanded an extremely close facial picture, including the iris, and even asked me to turn my face in multiple angles. basically, it's like creating a government ID.
Collecting such detailed biometric data is unnecessary and poses a serious danger since it could be misused or sold.
Notification spam and ads right on launch
The app buries you in push notifications about new features and subscriptions, with pop-ups you can't dismiss that force you to "send a message" without credits. And some users are greeted by an ad the moment they open it.
constant spam of notifications about new features and i don't know if the dev was tasked to do this, but these popups can't be canceled. they force you to "send a message" even though you don't have credit for it.
Lol an ad right when opening the app. You can't get trashier than that
Plus it keeps spamming you will useless notifications. But premium, do this or that. pointless.
You can't delete your account, chats or even photos
Leaving happn turns out harder than joining: the account won't delete or deactivate, you can't remove a photo without replacing it with at least two, and dead "crush not available" chats can't be cleared from the list.
then I try to delete my account but i can't. then i try to delete my photos and it won't let me and say i must have 2. i had to upload 2 photos of random people to get my photos off there. not cool
can't delete your account, once you register you are here for eternity can't deactivate account,
Give the damn option to delete the chats that are not available anymore. it's irritating af