MeetMe (originally called My Yearbook) is a social networking app that has a variety of functions. Released in 2005, It is one of the oldest dating apps/sites in the market and, while a lot of its features are pretty traditional, they do have a few things that I have personally never seen before.
As with all old dating apps, it started as a dating site. Two high school students, Dave and Catherine Cook, created My Yearbook in 2005 during their spring break. Dave was a growing student when the site was launched, and Catherine was in her second year.
The project was initially activated at Montgomery High School near New Jersey. The site was created entirely by developers in India.
MeetMe gets its revenue from three sources. These sources are advertising sales, virtual currency, and monthly subscriptions making advertising two-thirds of its revenue.
It has sales offices based in New York and Los Angeles. In December 2010, it partnered with Viximo Information System Service, providing more opportunities for users to play.
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How Does Your Profile on MeetMe Work?
Okay, so the profiles on MeetMe have all the expected features of dating apps; you can post your own photos, give as much or as little information about yourself, and specify what you are looking for, whether it’s new friends, hookups, relationships, or something else.
Additionally, Your Profile on MeetMe has several categories that you can filter through:
First, there’s the “Your Name” button.
After clicking, you will be asked to select a few tags about yourself like, shutterbug, non-Religious, health nut, stoner, nerd, and homebody.
After that, you will unlock all the profile features like adding your own description, COVID dating preference (quite bizarre, I know, but pretty useful too), height, body type, children, education, and more.
Then, you’ve got the Views section where you can find everyone that has either viewed your profile or has taken a glance at your pics.
Then you have the Friends section, where you can review all the friends you’ve added as well as get suggestions based on your preferences.
The next one, “Favorites,” is where all your favorite streams and people are saved. Then you have the Level section, which has a detailed list of all the unlockable customizations that will be available as your level progresses as well as showing you just how close you are to the next level.
In the Matches section, the app basically becomes Tinder-like. You will see a series of profiles related to you, based on your location and on your preferences, and you can indicate the ones you are interested in by clicking the heart button. You can remove the ones you don’t find attractive by tapping on the X.
If you’re particularly interested in someone, you can click on his/her picture to go directly to her profile so you can see their profile in detail. If you want, you can send him/her a message. After you click the see full profile, you will be able to see their profile in full detail.
There will be a specific section for all the photos they’ve uploaded as well as a section where you can see some basic information about them.
How Does Finding People Work on MeetMe?
Well, there are multiple ways to find people on MeetMe. First, there’s the Locals section, which filters people that are within a certain proximity, but also people who are online.
This is great as you won’t have to wait 72 hours for a response and the list updates real-time so you can always find someone online to chat to.
Additionally, there are filters that you can use like, Near Me, Trending, and more.
How Does MeetMe’s LIVE Feature Work?
You see, this is the twist I was talking about. MeetMe has this feature called LIVE. To be honest, it’s really similar to Instagram Live where people can start live streaming themselves and respond to questions in the chat.
They can also invite someone among the viewers to join in and have a one-on-one chat. And no, you don’t need to worry about nudity or obscene behavior; there are moderators who are quick to take down such streams.
The Live Function has a pretty interesting twist where you can get to know someone you are interested in hitting up in a group environment. It has several filters:
There’s “Nearby,” which puts the people closest to your location first, “New” for people who have just started streaming, “Favorites” which shows people that you prefer to see first, and, finally, “Date” which filters streams that also have the Date Function enabled.
The last filter allows users to line up in an orderly queue in order to talk to the host of the stream. Each participant gets a set amount of time, so you have to be quick in order to impress the host.
In addition to all of this, you can tip streamers with the platform’s currency called Credits.
Giving a streamer Credit will give them a diamond, which is something that is used to measure the success of the streamer, thus ranking them in the “top” category.
In addition, you can filter out the streams according to your preferred location, age group, spoken language, and others.
To me, it seems that this is where the majority of users hang out on this app. There were a few streams that were getting more than 2000 viewers each which is mind-boggling! There’s a huge incentive to stream on this app.
The more currency you are awarded, the more rewards you get. With that currency, you can even purchase MeetMe+, MeetMe’s premium subscription.
You can also cash in your MeetMe currency for money; according to one user, “80,000 gets you $200 or $250, 250,000-ish gets you $500 400,000 gets you $1000, and so on.”
That’s in USD, so it could be more or far less depending on where you live. “I used to stream but ended up leaving because it takes way too long to build up anything of use unless you get really desperate people in your chat.”
The top streamer on the site has earned 50 million diamonds, so I did that math, and she would have made $156,250, nothing to sneeze at. If you are someone who is looking to socialize with random people, you definitely need to check this feature out.
You just need to go to the “Live” section of the app then click the “Go Live!’ button. There’s only one requirement to do this and that is to upload a photo of yourself that meets the requirements (you have to make sure your eyes are visible and your face is at least 20% of the photo).
How Do MeetMe’s Messages Work?
MeetMe’s messaging is pretty plain and basic, there aren’t any features that stand out compared to other platforms. Just like Hinge, MeetMe allows you to send a message before matching with someone. This means you can start the conversation even before someone has decided to match with you.
How Does MeetMe’s Leveling System Work?
Well, at the beginning you will gain experience just by completing your profile, adding new pictures, and adding descriptions of yourself but, at a certain point, when you’ve added every picture you can, and you’ve written everything about yourself, there are only two things you can do: either try matching with random strangers by adding them as friends, or try streaming.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this platform puts a lot of incentive on streaming.
How Does MeetMe’s Paid Version Work?
MeetMe+ is the name of MeetMe’s premium service. It comes in a 1-month, 3-month, or 6-month auto-renewable subscription. It offers its users traditional features like removal of ads, unlocking users’ statistics, hidden matches, stealth browsing, profile themes, and it also gives you the “Top of Inbox” option which means that whenever you send someone a message whilst having MeetMe+, your message will appear at the top of their inbox.
This increases your chances of getting noticed and connecting to people you are interested in.
So let’s go over them one by one:
Removal of ads– this platform relies heavily on ads, they aren’t particularly annoying, but the software would look and function so much better without them.
Unlocking user statistics– this feature is pretty self-explanatory. You will be able to see how many people have viewed your profile, who has viewed your profile, and when.
Hidden Matches– here you can see people that have liked your profile. Without this option, you can play a mini-game to guess who out of 16 users has liked your profile.
Profile themes– here, you will be able to choose between a variety of themes. You can make your profile even more customized.
Stealth Browsing– this allows you to go through the profiles of others without leaving a trace. It’s a handy feature to have when you’re stalking someone (though, obviously, don’t do that because it’s creepy).
How to Download MeetMe?
MeetMe can be used on a variety of platforms that would include iOS, Android, as well as on Home computers (Windows, Linux, and Mac). You can use MeetMe’s website to access the same features as on the mobile app.
If you prefer to use a computer, you would be surprised at how easy it is to create a MeetMe account. As with many other dating apps, it started out as a dating website so this version is the most developed of all.
You just need to go to MeetMe’s web page, and from there, you can create your account, or you can log in with your Facebook account.
The features found on the site are nearly identical (If not superior) to those found on the app.
The MeetMe app can be downloaded both on the iOS app store or on the Google Play Store; just click the download button, and the app will appear on your main screen, then you can open it up, and from there you can create an account, sign in if you’re already an existing user or login with Facebook.
Final Thoughts
So, this app is an odd one. Honestly, if I were you, I would skip this one. It just felt like it was more of a streaming app where people come to hang out and chill rather than a dating app where people actually come to meet potential matches.
I’m not saying you can’t find love on a platform like this, but it does tend to get a bit messy with too many people involved in the chat and all that.
To me, it seems that this app is trying to be more than just a dating app and, while innovation is always cool, everything is spread too thin and I find that a lot of the features here are lacking.
You could continue using this app, and you can probably have some success with it, land a few dates, and have a few pleasant conversations.
But, if you are someone who is looking for a place to find some dates, one-night stands, or a long-term relationship, I would recommend not using this mainly because of the previously cited reason but also because it has SO MANY inactive profiles.
I think there are apps that offer a far better experience and I know there are way better apps/dating sites out there like eharmony or EliteSingles where people are quite serious about finding a match.
I also have another post where I talk about other dating apps for people who are looking for relationships and a bit of an overview of each one. You can check that out here.
