TrulyMadly quick review: A dating app with privacy at core

Everything is going mobile, so why not dating? Which is where TrulyMadly comes in, an app built from the ground up for the smartphone generation.   Founded by a team of renowned eCommerce websites such as MakeMyTrip and Letsbuy, TrulyMadly is an online dating platform that helps you find your match using safe and secure methods.   Available for Android devices, TrulyMadly does not make big promises, except that it keeps your information safe and ensures complete privacy. We gave the app a quick look today to find out if it lives up to its promise.   One of the key features of the TrulyMadly app is Trust Score that gets built from the information you provide. Information is taken from your phone number, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and, most importantly your photo ID, which is a pretty robust method to verify identities. Facebook and the Photo ID make up for 60% of your trust score. Interactions are not possible unless a user’s profile is verified and a minimum score of 30% is necessary to get verified. One can accumulate 30% by just providing their LinkedIn profile and employment status – both not very difficult to fudge.   [caption id=“attachment_228889” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] You can’t interact with people without first obtaining a minimum Trust Score[/caption]   However, a poor Trust Score means there are thinner chances of others trusting you with their credentials. So if you’re looking at the app for serious use, it might be best to verify all your details and expect the same from the people you connect with.   How it works The app is pretty intuitive and getting started is a piece of cake. You can ‘Hide’ people you don’t like or ‘Like’ people you’re interested in. If a person ‘likes’ you back, you can see their full name and interact with them. Unless you complete the verification, you can’t interact with people you’re interested in nor see all the profiles that match your preferences.   The app pulls out matches based on your preferences such as age, height, country, annual income and eating habits. These details are visible to all verified users. Once your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are verified, others can see the number of connections you have on each account and also find out if you have any friends in common. If you don’t verify your profile, then you will still be shown certain matches, but not allowed to interact or view them in detail.   Features     The app cuts on the time you’ll be spending on jotting down an impressive bio by making use of pre-written hashtags. You can choose a maximum of five hashtags to summarize your interests, such as #AvidTraveller, #Artsy, #BeachBum etc. These are visible publicly so you can click through and see others who have also used the same hashtag.   The Mutually Liked section includes all the people who are also interested in you, while personality tests help in searching people you’re most compatible with.   The app could also use a bit more polishing, for example, there’s no option to recover a forgotten password. We can expect such glitches to be ironed out in the future updates.   The Good: Intuitive, ‘Trust Score’ makes sure you see genuine people, and only interact with people you like. It also helps in building some credibility for the service itself, though the ‘bad’ takes some of the sheen away.   The Bad: Photos and personal preferences are open, though only to verified users. Verification is not completely foolproof, as it requires a Trust Score of just 30 percent.