New Dating App Stroovy Aims To Be The Yelp For Exes

Despite criticism every time it surfaces, there’s at least one app idea that refuses to die. Stroovy is the latest in a long line of apps for rating and reviewing people - especially your exes. What makes this one different, however, is that it’s limited to people who use dating services.

“Finding the perfect mate can seem impossible,” reads the app’s website. “Stroovy provides serious online daters a community-led platform for peer-to-peer dater review.” The app encourages singles to “authenticate before you date” and “Stroove before you groove” - ostensibly for the purpose of making online dating safer, but it’s hard to believe users won’t be more attracted by the possibility of pettiness and scandal.

The idea is similar to Lulu, an app for women to review men, which stirred up plenty of controversy when it launched. Lulu has since transitioned beyond its original intent and Stroovy vows to be different by accepting reviews from users of all genders. Stroovy also promises to help users:

• Identify, review, and verify people of interest on dating sites
• Use facial recognition to find who they are looking for and link profiles from multiple dating sites
• Get a reality check on dating behavior by seeing how they and others are perceived
• Compare a dater's profile with what Stroovy users have to say
• Avoid the "blindness" of blind dates and be confident that they are meeting the person they think they are

Here’s how it works. New users sign up by inputting basic information like name, gender, and birthday. To encourage an active community, users are unable to browse the Stroovy reviews until they leave a full review (including a photo) of their own. Don’t get tricky with the pics - the app uses facial recognition to prevent the uploading of photos that don’t have faces in them.

The process of writing a review is surprisingly extensive. You’ll be asked, amongst other things, to detail where you met the person, what your relationship is, and for a variety of classic dating site details like marital status, body type, and height. You’ll also be prompted to write a short review of your experience with that person.

Of note is the fact that Stroovy’s reviews are not entirely anonymous. A user name and avatar appear alongside each review, and users are required to sign up with a phone number so duplicate accounts cannot be made. Reviews are also not limited to former flames. Anyone - friends, family, coworkers - can leave a review for someone they know.