String: to hear what your match sounds like

The dating app for voice-note lovers. String launched this year as a way to make dating during self-isolation more personal. Rather than sending strings of robotic one-liners, the app lets you put a voice to your matches’ pictures by sending each other voice-notes. No texting is allowed: you can either react with an emoji or send one back.

For extra audio points, Spotify is now integrated into the app so you can add your favourite song to your profile.

Feeld: for exploring your identity

This one’s for singles and couples and it’s more about helping you find your next hookup than anything too serious. You might just find out more your own sexual identity, too – users say Feeld has helped them discover polyamory, meet best friends through threesomes and changed their perceptions of gender forever.

The casual sex up is based on your location and lets you choose from more than 20 sexualities and gender identities to find a partner interested in the same sexual experiences as you. You can also pair profiles with a partner if you’re already in a relationship, or create group chats. Go wild.

Profoundly: for personality over pictures

Profoundly helps you open a conversation with interesting questions and entertaining icebreakers. Only when you’ve chatted enough will it unlock your match’s photos – the 2021 edition of Blind Date.

It’ll match you with people nearby who have similar interests and lets you send anonymous confessions to Facebook friends so you can finally tell that guy from school you always fancied him.

Badoo: to meet anyone

Your pals might tell you everyone’s on Hinge but Badoo is the biggest dating app in the world. The app was launched by Russian tech entrepreneur Andrey Andreev in 2009, three years before Tinder, and it now has more than 500 million customers, operates in 190 countries and is available in 51 different languages.

The app recently launched Private Detector, a safety feature which uses AI to detect the sending of unsolicited dick pics, giving users the choice to either open and view this content, or avoid it altogether. It’s proven to by 98 per cent accurate.

Friended: to found love on friendship

Friended might be designed for making friends but many of its success stories have turned romantic. “I found my soulmate on this app,” says one happy user. “You guys changed my life. My girlfriend and I would like to thank you for your hard work for it joined vgl us,” says another.

The app works by matching people through fun games, personality quizzes and icebreakers – psychologists say these help create honest one-to-one conversations. Scroll through other users’ thoughts, opinions and interests and once you see someone or something you relate to, you can direct message them and chat more about it.

Thursday: to switch off six days a week

Thursday wants to eliminate all the elements of dating that have made it start to feel like a chore: the evenings spent swiping, the conversations fizzling, the admin of planning your week around possible evenings your match might like to go for a drink. After 13 months spent staring at screens, “lockdown has made dating stale”, say co-founders George Rawlings and Matt McNeil Love, listing the reasons for launching their new dating app. Thursday’s solution? Bringing the thrill back – hopefully – by only making the app available for one day a week (yep, you got it).

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The app also wants to minimise admin and make dating “proactive” again. All matches and conversation disappear at midnight, so you have to act quickly and be a bit spontaneous if you want to secure a date (to boost safety, members are verified using a passport or driving license and will be booted off the app if they are reported once. Though geography plays a part in suggestions, precise locations are not shared).