Proximity-based dating apps are great for hooking up, but Mingleton (free) might take the “proximity” part a little too far

The app lets you choose who youll see: Guys, girls, and friends or friends of friends. You can also search for people by name, if you know who youre after. The app does not discriminate by relationship status, but it does take friend location and sexual preference into account when showing you people to rate. Also, in the (horrifying) event that you accidentally swipe “get date” or “get down” for someone you shouldnt have, you can undo the action by searching for them and tapping “undo.”

Finally, if you want to “increase your chances,” you can have the app send your chosen “friend” an anonymous text message (assuming you have your friends phone number), datingranking.net/de/dating-in-ihren-40ern asking them to download the app and hopefully rate you. In other news, this is an excellent way to prank your single friends-sorry guys!

Is Down any worse than Tinder? No, not really. But its much more difficult to get in the “online dating” mood when you have to keep swiping past your boss, your extended family, and your old high school teachers.

Mingleton

Mingleton is a Tinder-like dating app that matches you up with people who are in the same room as you-seriously, it looks for people who are “within up to 50 meters” from your location.

At first, this doesnt seem too bad. After all, if youre looking to get down with someone at a party, its probably easier if theyre, you know, at that party.

But while this concept of mutual opt-in works on Tinder-because if you dont want to mingle with someone on Tinder, you can just not ever meet them-its not quite as easy in a Mingleton situation. It definitely sets the stage for potential stalking, since you can simply look around the room (or festival, or whatever) and see the person who has rejected your invitation. After all, theyre within 50 meters of you-thats just more than half the length of a football field.

In other words, while Mingleton means well (the point, according to the creators, is to get people to do some IRL mingling), its just super creepy and weird, and it probably makes for a lot of uncomfortable situations.

A slightly less-creepy, but still extra-close-proximity-based app is the newly launched Happn, which is sort of like Tinder mashed up with Craigslists Missed Connections. Unlike Mingleton, Happn simply logs people as you cross paths with them, and then asks if you want to meet them later on, instead of logging people who are standing next to you.

So… more people need to “like” my profile before I can send a message to another user? Ouch. Way to be a buzzkill, FaceMatch.

Like Tinder, its a mutual opt-in app that asks you to like people (ask them to “mingle”), and then it only connects you to people who also want to “mingle” with you

Because Down is based on your Facebook friends list, you must sign in with Facebook. Dont worry, though-the app promises it will never post anything to Facebook on your behalf. Next, the app asks you to go through your friends list and rate your friends by swiping up for “get date” (meaning, “I would like to have coffee and potentially a relationship with this person”), or down for “get down” (meaning… well, something else besides coffee) or to the left for “NOPE.” Like Tinder, the app only lets the other person know that you want to have coffee/hook up with them if they also want to have coffee/hook up with you, so nobody gets embarrassed.