An app called Tea that lets women anonymously review guys has soared to No. 1 in the App Store
It hit No. 1 on the US Apple App Store this week.
We broke down how the app works and the reactions it's gotten.
An app that lets women review men anonymously is going viral — and it's stirring polarizing opinions and some concerns about privacy.
The app, called Tea, has surged to the No. 1 spot on the US Apple App Store. It launched in 2023 and began rapidly ascending charts in the last few weeks.
Sensor Tower, a marketing intelligence firm that tracks app data, estimated that downloads increased 185% in the first 20 days of July compared to the same period in June.
Tea was founded by Sean Cook, whose LinkedIn page says he previously held roles at Salesforce and Shutterfly.
According to Tea's website, Cook launched the app "after witnessing his mother's terrifying experience with online dating — not only being catfished but unknowingly engaging with men who had criminal records."
The concept for the app isn't exactly novel.
"Are We Dating the Same Guy" Facebook groups, where women share experiences with men they've dated, emerged in 2022. About a decade earlier, there was Lulu, an app where women could rate men.
Tea's viral moment comes in an era of swiping fatigue, when incumbent dating apps and new startups alike are trying to redefine the dating landscape.
Tea declined to comment for this story.
How does Tea work?
Tea opens to a feed displaying photos of men, posted by anonymous users with screen names. In some posts, women ask for "tea" — meaning the gossip — on someone they're interested in, while others provide detailed reviews of men. The app doesn't allow screenshots (if you try, all you'll end up with is a black screen).
When users go to post a "man," the app asks for the man's first name, estimated age, and location. They can also include a caption and photos. To publish the post, users must select a box that says, "All statements are true."
Users can react to posts with green or red flags, add comments, and share text posts on a forum, where some users ask for advice. (In modern dating lingo, red flags equate to warning signs. Green flags are the opposite — signs of emotional intelligence or respectfulness, for example.)
The app locks some features behind a paywall.
For instance, there's a maximum of five free searches a month, after which users are given a choice: pay for Tea's $15 a month subscription or invite friends to the app and unlock features like unlimited searches. A slew of other paywalled features require a subscription, including background checks, phone number lookup, and reverse-image search.
The app says that 10% of profits are donated to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Another anonymous app goes viral
The company posted a story to its Instagram on Wednesday saying that the app "received more than 900,000 requests to join" this week.
Tea has gotten a warm reception from users so far, with an average rating of 4.7 out of over 60,000 ratings on the App Store.
The app has also provoked a range of strong reactions on social media.
Mentions of Tea on both X and Reddit began picking up steam on July 17, according to social media monitoring company PeakMetrics. Coincidentally, that aligns with the unravelling of the Coldplay "kiss cam" saga.
While Tea is focused on women's dating, it joins the ranks of viral anonymous apps — like Yik Yak and AskFM — that have, in many instances, been criticized for their potential to foster cyberbullying and harassment.
In its analysis, PeakMetrics wrote that a "significant theme" in online discussions on Reddit was the app's ethical implications, "particularly regarding privacy and the potential for defamation."
PeakMetrics added that while some online had praised the app as a way to expose harmful behavior, Tea had also "sparked debates about fairness and the potential for false accusations, reflecting broader societal discussions on gender and safety."
Read the original article on Business Insider
Solve the daily Crossword
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Tea dating app disables direct messaging as it investigates data breach
A previously disclosed hack affecting Tea, a women-only dating advice app, was more extensive than previously thought, the company said Monday. Tea's investigation of the incident found that app users' direct messages had been breached, along with some of their photos. "Out of an abundance of caution, we have taken the affected system offline," San Francisco-based Tea said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. The app, which has become one of Apple's most downloaded free apps, was compromised in a cyberattack that exposed members' personal information, including selfies, Tea said Friday. The hackers accessed a data storage system containing information that members had uploaded prior to February 2024, the company said. An additional 59,000 images and direct messages were also accessed without authorization, according to Tea. Tea lets women share information about their dates and run background checks on potential matches, among other things. Ted Miracco, CEO at mobile security maker Approov, urged users to exhibit caution in sharing personal information on widely downloaded apps.. "A lot of people presume that if an app is available through Apple or Google, that it's safe. That's the first mistake consumers make," he told CBS MoneyWatch. Miracco also said Tea lacked adequate security protections. "This is basic cybersecurity and something the company should be held accountable for," he said. "They rushed to market and promised consumers to create a safe site, and instead they exposed them."
Engadget
2 hours ago
- Engadget
YouTube will be included in Australia's social media ban for children after all
YouTube will be included in Australia's social media ban for children under 16, as reported by Bloomberg . The country's Labor government said that the site will be subject to the same rules as other leading platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X when the legislation goes into effect this December. Australia had planned to exempt YouTube from the forthcoming social media ban, on the grounds that it's an educational tool. This irked other platforms, with Meta and TikTok urging the country's government to backtrack on the exclusion. This move didn't sit too well with YouTube and parent company Alphabet. A company spokesperson told CNN that this decision 'reverses a clear, public commitment' from the government to treat the platform as an educational tool. YouTube Kids isn't included in the ban because it doesn't allow users to upload videos or comment. The government said this reversal was largely influenced by a survey released by Australia's independent online regulator, the eSafety Commission. It found that 37 percent of children surveyed had reported seeing harmful content on YouTube. This includes stuff like dangerous online challenges, fight videos and hateful rhetoric. Communications Minister Anika Wells recently spoke to the Australian Parliament and noted that "YouTube uses the same persuasive design features as other social media platforms, like infinite scroll, like autoplay and algorithmic feed." She went on to say that she accepted the results of the aforementioned survey and that YouTube "should not be treated differently from other social media platforms." The ban originally passed at the tail-end of last year, though some of the details have yet to be ironed out. The government has until December to finalize everything. We do know that the ban puts the onus on the actual platforms to prevent children from opening up accounts, as they'll face hefty fines of up to nearly $50 million Australian dollars ($32 million USD) if they don't comply. 'Kids, God bless them, are going to find a way around this. Maybe they're all going to swarm on LinkedIn. We don't know,' Minister Wells said. My hunch is that it'll be more VPN than LinkedIn.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gen AI apps doubled their revenue, grew to 1.7B downloads in first half of 2025
Generative AI apps have seen tremendous growth in both downloads and in-app revenue in the first half of 2025, a report from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower said. Users downloaded Gen AI apps 1.7 billion times, compared to 1 billion in H2 2024. These apps doubled in-app revenue, bringing in $1.87 billion in H1 2025, as compared to $932 million in H2 2024. The report noted that users spent over 15.6 billion hours on Gen AI apps in the first half of 2025, a jump from 8.5 billion hours in H2 2024. This time was recorded over 426 billion sessions. Asia was the fastest-growing market for Gen AI apps, and also took the lead for market share in terms of downloads with 42.6%, thanks to markets like India and Mainland China. Download growth in Asia was 80% in H1 2025, as compared to 51% in Europe and 39% in North America. While LatAm registered the highest growth for in-app purchases for Gen AI apps, North America still holds the lead in terms of market share with 40%. ChatGPT's continued growth Sensor Tower noted that ChatGPT was the leading app for in-app revenue in every country bar China. However, China's Deepseek performed better in terms of the number of downloads in weeks after the launch. People are also spending more time with different AI assistants, with ChatGPT leading the pack. People used the app for more than 12 days on average in a month for H1. Other popular apps were Character AI, PolyBuzz, DeepSeek, and Perplexity. ChatGPT's stickiness has been impressive. Sensor Tower said that people are using OpenAI's app as much as X and Reddit. Only Google has a better rate for the average number of days used per month. The report also mentioned that, as compared to last year, ChatGPT's weekend usage has also improved, signaling that people are relying on the AI-powered chat app beyond work. 'This development makes its app usage patterns more akin to Google's, which consumers rely on as a primary search tool both during and outside of work hours,' the report said. Over time, the gap between usage of ChatGPT and usage of apps in the top search engine and browser categories has decreased. For instance, in H1 2025, ChatGPT had 16 minutes of average daily usage as compared to 18.2 minutes for the top search engine and browser. Beyond search, users are also using ChatGPT for health and wellness, shopping, personal finance, and meal prep advice. The report said that more than a third of prompts used on ChatGPT in Q2 2025 were related to lifestyle and entertainment. Sensor Tower noted that ChatGPT is gaining users across both mobile apps and platforms. It said that more than 15% of ChatGPT users in the U.S. access it across the web and mobile, higher than other platforms like Temu and Threads. While ChatGPT has shown progress, it is still behind other platforms like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Google Docs, and Amazon, which have more than 25% of users accessing the service both on the web and mobile. Apps are adding 'AI,' literally The intelligence firm said in its report that the term AI now appears over 100,000 times in app descriptions on both the App Store and the Play Store. Users downloaded apps mentioning AI 7.5 billion times in H1 2025, which accounted for around 10% overall downloads. In the last 12 months, a growing number of apps in categories like AI assistant, AI content generation, Photo editing, Nutrition & Diet, Test Prep, Tutoring & Studying, Translation, and Other Hobbies & Interest Services have added AI-related terms. An increasing number of apps in the top charts for different categories now have 'AI' in their names. However, this addition only has a short-term boost in downloads. 'Unsurprisingly, apps that added terms like 'AI' or 'LLM' to their app names or descriptions experienced a notable boost in downloads over the subsequent months,' Sensor Tower said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
