overhyped / not great for queer (or non-white ??) women
I was curious about Raya because people refer to it as this app where you can meet other creatives, and everyone talks about it like it’s a dating app (but it seems more like networking). I was surprised when I first got in that I was only seeing white women, which was a bit of a red flag, and they’re all very polished, pretty girls but that’s really not my typical type (straight-passing white women).
Also there’s no functionality for queer dating on the searches or world map because it shows you whoever, usually straight men and women. My last girlfriend was the lead in a band I used to be a fan of, and I really enjoyed that we had mutual respect for each other’s art, so I was just hoping to find something like that on here. But there aren’t many artists tbh. Idk just disappointing for a $25 mandatory charge, I could go through all my local likes on Tinder for that. And it’s annoying that there’s no way to set it to local. Around the holidays I’m not traveling out of state much and if I’m going to be dating someone I’d prefer their home base to be close to mine. And I knoww there are plenty of people on Raya in my city 🤨
Also there’s no functionality for queer dating on the searches or world map because it shows you whoever, usually straight men and women. My last girlfriend was the lead in a band I used to be a fan of, and I really enjoyed that we had mutual respect for each other’s art, so I was just hoping to find something like that on here. But there aren’t many artists tbh. Idk just disappointing for a $25 mandatory charge, I could go through all my local likes on Tinder for that. And it’s annoying that there’s no way to set it to local. Around the holidays I’m not traveling out of state much and if I’m going to be dating someone I’d prefer their home base to be close to mine. And I knoww there are plenty of people on Raya in my city 🤨
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Bug or gamified?
I design and build apps so I tested this one.
It seems the ‘like’ component doesn’t work ethically. It states you’re given a limit on ‘likes’ per day when the reality is you have a limit on people served to you. You could reject every person but only like one and still hit your limit of ‘likes’ so the naming and explanation on why there is a limit (to encourage you to talk with your connections) is incredibly misleading.
This prompted me to also test what happens if you use the rewind button on the same person and whether your like limit could be reached simply repeating that with one person. It did. Which shows that Raya does not discern between who and how you have engaged with others historically. All it accounts for is the engagement of the app, not the individual.
Without that, you lose the expected range of potential people to match with and will ultimately be served the same people - which you’ve already probably noticed, right?
It’s also suspicious that you cannot set and then be served anyone who matches your desired criteria. You are simply given random people from a pool of age groups, gender, and location. How is that not a fundamental feature in 2024?
These aren’t bugs. This is intentional design to minimise your chances of finding a meaningful connection. This app is gamified and costs you your time and money.
It seems the ‘like’ component doesn’t work ethically. It states you’re given a limit on ‘likes’ per day when the reality is you have a limit on people served to you. You could reject every person but only like one and still hit your limit of ‘likes’ so the naming and explanation on why there is a limit (to encourage you to talk with your connections) is incredibly misleading.
This prompted me to also test what happens if you use the rewind button on the same person and whether your like limit could be reached simply repeating that with one person. It did. Which shows that Raya does not discern between who and how you have engaged with others historically. All it accounts for is the engagement of the app, not the individual.
Without that, you lose the expected range of potential people to match with and will ultimately be served the same people - which you’ve already probably noticed, right?
It’s also suspicious that you cannot set and then be served anyone who matches your desired criteria. You are simply given random people from a pool of age groups, gender, and location. How is that not a fundamental feature in 2024?
These aren’t bugs. This is intentional design to minimise your chances of finding a meaningful connection. This app is gamified and costs you your time and money.
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Basically instagram but looks like Tinder
I’ve been on the app for a month and a half. I got on immediately so I didn’t have to deal with the waitlist stuff. I was super excited but the app design has so many flaws. It shows like 10 people every 4 hrs and the guys are not even in the entertainment industry half the time or live in the city. The next month I paid extra for Raya + which literally is no different than the $25 one. There’s hardly anyone to match with and people just disappear after a few conversations or don’t even start a conversation. It just feels like instagram with giving people validation on their photos. Also the map thing with the people nearby is so confusing because it’s showing me women and I’m straight. Hopefully they can rebrand their app with a new design.
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Waiting for months!
No idea how they review the applications but it what’s the point? Or you guys just collecting peoples’ information for other purposes.
Scam
The fact that you can’t just look at your area and instead shows you people on the other side of the world makes this app a joke, shows you one person from your city a day basically, I think they don’t want you to actually find someone so you keep paying.
Fix banning screenshots
You get reported for taking screenshots but wouldn’t it make more sense to do like WhatsApp - where you actually don’t get to take screenshot? Now you get reported when you forget about being on this app but you also get a screenshot.. just bad app design if you actually care about not having people take screenshots!
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Great Idea Disappointingly Executed
I was happy to pay a little more for membership for something that claims to be a cut above. Unfortunately, despite signing up for a year at a tidy cost, that isn’t enough for the makers of this app, who seem desperate for even more money at almost every level of this app!
“You’ve run out of likes (10-15 max it seems): pay us money to get more.”
“Want to introduce to someone with a comment? Pay us more money.”
“No more profiles until you talk to your matches. You are? Doesn’t matter, no more for you… unless you pay us more money.”
Hope they update it in future to just leave you alone if you’ve paid for a membership but for now it just feels grubby and, ironically, makes the whole thing seem cheap!
“You’ve run out of likes (10-15 max it seems): pay us money to get more.”
“Want to introduce to someone with a comment? Pay us more money.”
“No more profiles until you talk to your matches. You are? Doesn’t matter, no more for you… unless you pay us more money.”
Hope they update it in future to just leave you alone if you’ve paid for a membership but for now it just feels grubby and, ironically, makes the whole thing seem cheap!
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🙂
No one really messages and I’ve gone on zero dates but wow everyone is very good looking
InCorrect age
I’ve emailed customer service multiple times to correct my age and no one has gotten back to me. Just unfortunate
won’t let me cancel my subscription
won’t let me cancel my subscription. tried emailing to cancel it manually but the support team were useless and kept trying to instruct me to cancel via app store, which i obviously would’ve done if i was able to.
