Badoo uses the data that you have provided to them at registration regarding your biographical information, geographic location and preferred match criteria to feed you the profiles of other members that are potential matches

When you log on, you can modify what sort of match you are in search of at that moment. You have three choices: make friends, chat and date. This option is great if you merely want to extend your circle of friends. The “chat” option brings people together that are in search of people to engage with via the site’s chat platform. The “date” option is the one that would be used for those seeking meet ups, hook ups or potential relationships.

At the start of every session, you can also modify the gender of mydirtyhobby the person that you are looking for as well as the age range. (provided they are 18+, of course)

You can further fine tune the selection of people that Badoo matches you with by engaging in a series of “swipe games” based on who is nearby, who is seeking encounters and who wants to chat. Selecting the “nearby” option is supposed to only show you potential matches in your area. You then either like or dislike each profile.

When testing this feature we encountered a few instances when people from geographically distant locations were returned to us. These instances were few in number, but enough for us to notice – roughly five percent of “nearby” results.

The “encounters” option returns potential matches for members seeking casual hookup style meetings. We were surprised by the relatively low percentage of “catfish” profiles when using the search criteria. Other sites tend to return large numbers of fake profiles under the casual encounter category. Identical to the “nearby” category, you swipe for your approval or disapproval. Badoo labels these peer ratings as “yes,” “maybe,” and “no.”

The “chat” filter returns members that are only interested in chat. The only criticism that we had of this filter was that roughly 25 percent of the members that it matched us up with were offline for chat at that moment.

Overall, the matchmaking methodology used by Badoo renders what we can confidently label as quality results. You don’t feel frustrated by the results of the matches being suggested to you.

– Interacting With Other Badoo Members –

Interacting with other members and potential matches mirrors the communication process of – yes, wait for it – social media sites. You receive notifications when other members message you and you can even see the number of people that have taken a glance at your profile.

You can also see if a member that you have liked has liked you back. You also have the option of blocking specific members from contacting you. This sounds eerily familiar, right?

Badoo operates under a “freemium” model. This means that some functionality is free for all members and others requires paymentpared to other dating sites, the free version of Badoo is robust. You could easily use the free version and obtain a good user experience.

Badoo calls their premium options “Super Powers.” These are paid for when you use them. There is no monthly membership. To obtain Super Powers you must purchase Badoo credits. These can be bought using a credit card or PayPal.

We found the purchasing of Badoo credits straight forward using the website. However, when using the Apple and Android apps we found the process a bit cumbersome. It was too easy to accidentally set up reoccurring purchases of credits – that’s a big smudge in our opinion. Also, with the Apple app, you are limited to using your Apple account as the only method of payment.