Who it’s for:
If you prefer to keep your business and personal life separate, consider Raya. It’s an exclusive app that requires an application to join. The New York Times reported back in 2018 that only 8% of users were accepted, making it harder to get into than Harvard Business School.
You have to pay for that exclusivity, as there’s no free membership option. Instead, pricing starts at $25 a month. However, the app has rules against screenshotting or screen recording — doing so results in immediate termination of membership. Therefore, if you want to make sure your dating life stays private, aka no screenshots of your profile or messages posted to the internet, Raya is the only app to offer that level of discretion.
Why we picked this:
Raya is known as the “celebrity dating app,” as a variety of celebrities including Ben Affleck, Cara Delevingne, and Chris Rock have been spotted in the user base. And these aren’t catfish profiles either, as all Raya users must apply and have their applications reviewed by a committee of elite superusers. After your application is reviewed, you’re either accepted or waitlisted. Being on the waitlist is a sort of purgatory — any day you could find yourself magically accepted.
You don’t need to be a celebrity or have a massive social media following to join. In fact, Mashable editor, Chance Townsend, applied for Raya and was accepted quickly to the app. Unless you’re in New York or LA, you probably won’t find celebrities on there; however, you will find users who care about their profession, whether it be consulting or creative direction.
Raya provides discretion and warns against screenshotting or screen recording within the app. Members who ignore the warnings or are caught photographing content within the app will have their membership terminated.
During his time on the app, Townsend noted a lack of diversity among the profiles, finding the community to be primarily white users. Raya also limits the number of likes you get in addition to limiting the number of users you pass on, trying to keep you in the Goldilocks zone. Since there’s no free membership offered on Raya, you have to be ready to commit to the $25 a month, but if that seems like too much money, then Raya probably isn’t for you anyway. Besides, you can’t put a price on privacy.
