When Cid Walker opens the Tea app, she’s greeted by a barrage of posts about males and their obvious “pink” and “inexperienced” “flags.”
“He’s a cheater,” Walker stated, studying a few of the feedback on one publish out loud.
“What golf equipment does he go to?” one other individual requested on a special publish. “He’s cute.”
The app, which seems to have been promoting itself on-line since at the very least final fall, permits customers to solicit suggestions about particular males they’re courting.
Walker, 22, is among the many 4 million customers on the women-only security app, which this week grew to become the No. 1 free app within the Apple App Retailer.
It picked up viral traction within the final month after some folks started speaking about it on-line on Reddit and TikTok. The app gained greater than 900,000 new signups in the previous few days, Tea stated on social media. Getting off the waitlist can now take days, an inconvenience many new customers complained about in feedback on the app’s Instagram posts.
Upon opening Tea, customers are introduced with native males whose photographs have been uploaded, together with their first names. For every of the lads, different girls on the app can report whether or not they deem him a “pink flag” or a “inexperienced flag” and go away feedback about him, resembling these recounting damaging date experiences or vouching for him as a buddy.
“I’ve seen so many individuals I do know on the app, it’s loopy,” stated Walker, a Cleveland-area person who joined the app final week after having seen a number of viral posts about it. “Like, oh my God, I might by no means suppose all these items about them.”
App customers can lookup particular person names within the search bar or create customized alerts for particular males. The app additionally provides capabilities that allow customers run background checks, seek for felony histories and reverse-search photographs to test whether or not a person is catfishing by utilizing another person’s photographs on his courting profile.
The lady-only app was created by a person, Sean Prepare dinner, who stated on Tea’s web site that he was impressed after he watched his mom’s “terrifying expertise with on-line courting,” together with being catfished and unknowingly courting males with felony data.
Prepare dinner’s profile on LinkedIn lists him because the founding father of Tea since 2022. The outline underneath his function says, “Tea was self-funded by Sean.”
Prepare dinner didn’t reply to a request for remark. A consultant for Tea stated the app isn’t providing interviews right now.
Tea’s mission mirrors related efforts which have gained recognition in different on-line boards, resembling “Are We Courting The Identical Man?,” a Fb neighborhood with tens of millions of members throughout the nation in localized offshoots.
Whereas the communities have acknowledged that their mission is to maintain girls protected, they’ve additionally confronted backlash from males on-line who say they concern being misrepresented or doxxed on the platforms.
The Fb teams, which promote themselves as areas for ladies to warn different girls about “liars, cheaters, abusers, or anybody who displays any kind of poisonous or harmful conduct,” have for years been criticized on-line for devolving into locations for gossip or for spreading potential misinformation about folks. Final 12 months, judges dismissed two defamation lawsuits filed in Illinois and California by males who had been posted within the teams.
With Tea, some males have posted in boards asking for others to report the app in hope of getting it shut down, and others have expressed curiosity in a men-only equal on which they might talk about and mock girls.
One app has already tried to supply that. The Teaborn app climbed to No. 3 within the free apps chart Wednesday earlier than it disappeared from the App Retailer.
Shortly forward of its elimination, the app had rolled out an replace with “enhanced content material moderation and reporting instruments” after its creator condemned customers for allegedly sharing revenge porn on the platform.
Teaborn informed NBC Information in a social media assertion: “Apple simply eliminated us yesterday as a result of Tea app doesn’t like competitors, however we’re working to return with a brand new model!”
Apple didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Regardless of discovering apps like Tea entertaining, customers like Walker have expressed discomfort with the thought of permitting so many individuals to anonymously converse negatively about others on-line.
Signing up for Tea requires customers to take selfies, which the app says are deleted after evaluate, to show they’re girls. All customers who get accepted are nameless exterior of the usernames they select. Screenshots are additionally blocked.
On its web site, Tea describes itself as “greater than an app; it’s a sisterhood.” The app claims it donates 10% of its earnings to the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline.
A spokesperson for the hotline didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Thursday.
“Collectively, we’re redefining trendy courting,” the app says.
Walker stated that she has seen many customers focus extra on gossip than actual security issues however that she believes some folks have discovered Tea helpful for exposing severe points like abuse.
“I really feel like if folks had been to make use of the app the way it’s supposed for use, this might truly save lots of girls from being harm or harmed,” Walker stated. “However at this level, I believe it’s like a joke to all people and identical to cyberbullying.”
