Down App Review - A Complete No-BS Overview
Down promotes itself as an app for casual dating or a relationship. Is it any good? Keep reading for my no-BS complete review of the Down app
There is a lot to like about the Down app. First of all, the app is slick and responsive. I like the idea of what it's doing in simplifying how men can meet women on dating apps (more on that below).
There are also problems with the app. The cost and lack of female users are my biggest issues. Let's dive into my full review of the Down app.
What is the Down app?
Down claims, it's the "most honest" dating app to meet someone. The app lets women know you're looking for a casual relationship or a more serious one by how you swipe on a woman's profile.
Down is trying to be different than other swiping apps. Down believes it's healthier if you are up-front to women with what you want. Thus, allowing women to know if you're all about casual dating or want a relationship.
How to sign up for Down.
You can download the Apple App Store or Google Play. There is no desktop version of the app. It's mobile-only.
You can connect to your Facebook account or use your phone number to sign up. I avoid linking my dating apps to Facebook, but that's your call.
A benefit of using your phone number is the app adds a "verified" badge on your profile. If you sign up on Facebook, you don't get the verification badge.
Down will never post anything to your Facebook wall or news feed. The app says your friend will never know you are into them unless you both like each other's profile.
Is the Down app free?
Down offers a free version but allows you to view a handful of women. The app gives you 10 daily picks for free every 24 hours.
To make it clear, you don't get to "like" 10 women. You are only presented 10 women. So, if you see 10 women and like 1 of them, that's all you get until the next day.
Down does offer a one-week free trial membership. I recommend checking out the app for a few days. If it's not to your liking, you can cancel your membership.
I recommend using the free 7-day trial.
How to set up your profile on Down.
To start swiping women's profiles, you only need to upload one photo. That's it. You can add more if you like, however.
Down allows you to add more than just one photo. You can add a bio as well. I recommend adding more pictures and write about yourself, so you stand out, especially if you want a relationship.
Down allows the following options for adding pictures to your profile:
- Importing pictures stored on your phone.
- Take a selfie on your phone.
- Use photos from Facebook
- Import photos from Instagram.
Women will see your name, age, location, and primary photo when browsing profiles.
How does Down work?
Down offers a "tell it like it is" approach to meeting women on the app. Instead of swiping right or left to show interest like on Tinder, Down offers a different approach to let women know you're interested.
On Down, you swipe UP to show a woman you're interested in dating her. Swiping up tells a woman you're looking for more than a hookup. The app calls this a "Get Date" swipe.
Swipe UP on the Down app for a relationship.
You swipe DOWN to show a woman you are interested in casual dating or a hookup. It signifies you are looking for nothing serious. The app calls this a "Get Down" swipe.
Swipe downward on the Down app for a less serious relationship.
You swipe right or left to skip to the next woman. When you swipe left, you skip that person entirely. You can change your mind later and revisit their profile and swipe up or down.
Swipe left or right on the Down app to skip the person
One great feature on Down is it allows you to "undo" your selection. For example, you can change your interest in a woman from "possible relationship" to "hook up" by clicking the UNDO option or swipe halfway the opposite direction
Similar to Tinder or Bumble, a woman doesn't know you like her when browsing your profile. She will not be notified until she swipes your profile up/down.
Only when both of you select each other will you both be notified (by email, Facebook notification, or your phone settings) of a mutual swipe.
Down has a "crush" feature.
Women won't know you like them until they like you back. There's a way around this; the "crush" feature. Down claims using the crush increases your chance of matching with another user by 74%.
After you like a woman's profile, you can click on the "lips" when viewing her profile to send a crush. Down will send women a message to women letting them know you like them.
The crush feature lets women know you're interested in them.
Down offers currency for this feature, coins. Each "crush" costs 1 coin. You can see how many coins you have in your profile settings.
Down offers its own currency for using the crush feature; coins.
Are there women on The Down dating app?
You will be happy to know there are women on the app. How many women use the app? I'm not sure, but with a paid membership, I swiped through all females in San Diego in minutes.
You can swipe through all female members quickly on the Down app.
One thing nice about the app is that you can expand your search area. I am in San Diego and was able to change my city to Los Angeles.
You're not locked into your location because of your phone's GPS like Bumble or Tinder. Of course, the women will only see you if they change their location as well. You get around this using the "crush" feature I mentioned earlier.
Down allows you to change your location.
I see a "red flag" with the Down app.
One issue is I have with Down is a handful of women who viewed my profile. To test this app, I swiped up and down on most women.
If Down supposedly has a large number of female users and a handful view my profile, this leads me to one of two conclusions. First, there are not many women actively using the app. You simply don't know how many active users there are in a given area.
The other possibility is there are a huge number of men using the app. Here's the key, if women use the free version and get only 10 views a day, the odds are against you that your profile gets views.
A way around this is using the "supercharge" feature. This functions as a boost putting your profile at the top of the queue.
I signed up for the supercharge feature and saw no improvement in my results. I didn't get an increase in profile views. I recommend avoiding this feature.
Supercharge is an added feature that puts your profile at the top of women's search results.
What preferences are available on Down?
Down allows you to change the age range for what you're seeking. That's it. There's no maximum distance allowing you to specify a mile radius like on Tinder.
I think a lack of preferences is fine if you're looking for a hookup, but if you want a relationship, you can't filter on height, body type, kids, social drinker, pets, etc.
Age range is the only profile preference Down offers.
Down App Review - Final Thoughts
When looking at any app for this blog, I focus on two things:
- Are there women on the app?
- Does the app deliver what it promises?
I cannot recommend this app because of the lack of women. Maybe this will change in the future, but right now, there are better choices for casual dating.
On paper, Down seems like a good idea. Swipe up to let a woman know you want a relationship and swipe down for a hookup. It's a new approach that I like in theory.
The problem with offering two choices is execution. The Down app needs to figure out what it wants to be. You can't be a "relationship" app, but share nothing about women on the app. Hell, even Bumble and Hinge, offer insight about women in their bios.
Another problem is women do not write anything about themselves. If you're looking for a relationship, you're basing it on photos alone.
If you're looking for hookups, that's a different story because you typically don't care about anything beyond photos.
There are women on this app, but the problem is you don't know how active they are. A woman may actively use the app, or you may see a profile for someone who was on ages ago. You don't know.
I also noticed the app appeared buggy. For example, I ran out of matches quickly swiping through women in the 35-45-year-old age range. OK, fine, but if I adjusted my age preference to say, 34-45, all of a sudden, new women who were 35-45 years old show up. I lower my age requirement from 35 to 34, and all of a sudden, women from 35-45 show up? That's odd and irritating.
I think there are better apps for casual dating. If you're over 30, join AdultFriendfinder. If you are under 30, I recommend Wild or Pure over Down. That doesn't mean Down is bad, I just think the other apps are better.
There is one saving grace if you want to give this app a go. Down offers a free 7-day trial. A free trial version is always welcome!
Even with the free 7-day trial, I cannot recommend this app beyond the free trial period. There are not enough women to justify using it. If this app had more women, I'd say use this over all other casual dating apps.
With the free version, you can't contact many women. They clearly want you to pay for a membership.
At $19.99, this is an expensive app for what you get. However, the app offers a free 7-day trial, which I LOVE. If you decide to use this app, make sure you take advantage of the trial offer.
If you want to compare Down with other casual dating apps, visit my reviews here:
What's good about Down
There are several things good about the Down app. It has a quick set up time. You only need to load one photo and can start swiping on women's profiles.
This app is all about efficiency. No beating around the bush. You let a woman know you want to date her or hook up. No times for games. I like that.
The app looks modern. It's responsive and bare-bones, which can be a good thing for people who don't want to waste time filling profile traits and navigating tons of options like you'll find on OkCupid or Zoosk, for example.
Down has "undo," which is a cool feature that lets you change your mind. The app allows you to change from swiping up to swiping down and vice versa. You can use this feature with the free version.
I reached out to the Down support team and got responses quickly. A quick turnaround is great—a much better experience than other apps I tested in the past.
The best thing about this app is it has a 7-day free trial. You can give the app a test drive before deciding to go all-in on a premium membership. I wish more apps did this.
What's bad about Down
There are a few problems that may sway you from using this app. The main issue is there aren't enough women to justify the cost.
That's why you join an app, right? The women. If there aren't many women on the app, why bother?
Sure, the app shows you a handful of women for free every day, but that's the problem. You can't "like" 10 women, you are presented 10 women a day for free. In other words, you view just 10 women, and if you like zero, you're out of luck
Also, you have no idea how active women are on the app. You could swipe up/down on a woman who hasn't been active in ages. You simply don't know.
I went through all the female users fast. I received hardly any views. If women don't want to like my profile, that's fine. But the fact I had a handful of women look at my profile is a huge red flag. That tells me there are not many women actively using the app.
Another problem is if you are on this looking for a relationship, aside from age, you can't filter on anything. There are no settings for kids, religion, pets, etc. If you're willing to spend money, I recommend Match.com over Down.
Down Rating - 3.5 out of 10
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